Slice of life 2
by Justsomesquidiot
Summary: Not this garbage again. Yep, that's right. I made a sequel to my ridiculous first story. This time with less sexual stuff, but there's still a lot in there. The whole thing derails near the end as well so good luck making sense of that. Actually, if you can make sense of the story in general I applaud you. Enjoy the mess that is the sequel to slice of life.
1. The wedding that is in fact a wedding

( holy shit we're actually doing another one of these. Wow. Well then, welcome back everyone to the fucking ridiculous story that is this story, full of self awareness, sex, and messy plot points as far as the eye can see. There is remarkably less sex this time though, so that's something. Anyway, enjoy this fucking train wreck of a story. Now excuse me while I go get the narrator...)

-chapterstart-

( NARRATOR! GET OVER HERE! )

What? Oh, is it time for the sequel?

( Yeah, here's the script. Keep to it please. And no reading ahead! )

Alright, alright. Let's see here... Starting with Arron? Cool. Two years later as well? Nice!

( Yeah, yeah, let's get a move on. )

Are you gonna make fizz part of-

( Shut up. Just narrate already. )

Fine, geez.

Arron tries to calm himself down as he gets his tuxedo on.

"It's ok, it's fine... We're just getting married."

He smiles.

"Heh, can't believe it's been this long already..."

A knock at the door snaps him from his thoughts.

"Come in!"

Fizz walks in, with a phone to his ear and a notepad in his hands.

"Alright, when is it- no, the next one! Oi! Who's planning the reception here?! Yeah, that's what I thought."

He hangs up the phone, and shoves it in his pocket.

He sighs.

"Fuck dude, when did everything become so complicated?"

Arron laughs.

"When we became too old for turf wars."

Fizz smiles.

"When YOU And ANTHONY became too old you mean. Me and Karl are still perfectly young."

Arron rolls his eyes.

" You would never play without us."

Fizz shrugs.

"Eh, you got me there. Oh, by the way, they just finished construction on inkopolis square!"

Arron pumps his fist.

"Nice! New hangout!"

They both chuckle.

"Alright, I got planning to do. It's the big day, and it's starting to get to me."

Arron pats fizz on the shoulder.

"You'll do fine. I trust you."

Fizz sighs, and nods.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you at the alter."

He walks out, leaving Arron to finish dressing.

Fizz writes some stuff down on the notepad, and hears his phone ringing.

"Yello?"

"Ey, boss! Just wanted to let you know we landed the gig as inkopolis square's new news casters!"

Fizz smiles.

"Nice one! Are you sure Marina's ready for that though?"

"She'll be fine, she's been psyching herself up for a while now, Right?"

He hears a mumbled reply.

"See? Don't worry, we got this. Just enjoy your wedding!"

"Yeah... See you later, Pearl."

"See you later fizzie!"

Fizz groans, and hangs up.

"I hate that nickname..."

He turns a corner, only to be stopped.

"One kiss to proceed, please."

Fizz smiles and rolls his eyes.

"Damn it, how will I ever afford this?"

Sarah giggles.

"C'mon, just do it."

He brings her in for a quick kiss.

"Alright, you may go."

He grins and walks past her, looking down at his notepad again.

"Alright, still gotta order the cake, but otherwise I'm good."

"You shouldn't worry so much."

Fizz looks up and sees Marie standing there.

"Marie! You made it!"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. Now what's up?"

"I'm finishing the planning for the reception."

"Arron made you the planner?"

"Yep. Callie did a great job with the wedding, and I'm trying to do well with the reception."

"When does the service start?"

"An hour. You can go sit down."

Marie shrugs.

"Alright. See you later, 'best man'."

Fizz smiles and walks down the hall.

He knocks on Anthony's dressing room.

"Come in!"

He opens the door, and Anthony turns around and grins.

"Fizz! My man, how's the reception coming?"

"Pretty good, just gotta get the cake."

Anthony gives a thumbs up.

"Nice! Where's it at?"

Fizz raises an eyebrow.

"You'll find out. Stop trying to get it out of me."

Anthony frowns.

"Damn. Well, I gotta get married. Now get out, I'm trying to fix this stupid bowtie."

Fizz nods and walks out.

"Heeeeeeey fizz!"

Fizz gives a high five to Karl.

"What's up my guy? How's it been going?"

"Good! Me and Callie decorated the wedding hall, and we're all ready!"

Fizz sighs.

"Good, now we just wait for everyone to get here."

Karl gives a fistbump to fizz and walks off.

"Alright, let's do a roll call here..."

He walks into the hall.

"Alright, who's here?"

Callie waves from the alter, and Rece gives a thumbs up.

"Alright, we got a few. Nice job with the decorations, Callie!"

"Thanks! I know you'll do just as good with the reception!"

He nods and leaves.

"Alright... Zoey and John aren't coming, so we have only a few other people."

Fizz pulls out his phone and types a number.

"Hello, is the cake ready? Good, when I can I pick it up? Alright, I'm on my way."

Sarah pokes fizz.

"Hey Sarah. What's up?"

"You can't pick up the cake..."

Fizz frowns.

"But I-"

"Because I'm gonna do it!"

Fizz smiles.

"If you're offering, I'm not gonna refuse."

Sarah laughs.

"Where would you be without me? Alright, where am I getting it from?"

Fizz scribbles down the address and gives it to her.

"I'll come check on it later, don't mess it up!"

Sarah rolls her eyes.

"I wish Zoey and John were here to see this..."

A wedding? Weren't there enough cliches in the first one?

( Would you... Ugh, whatever. The story is built on cliches. )

Which ones haven't you used yet?

( You'll see. Now hurry it up. )

-segmentline-

"Did we have to cancel...?"

Zoey stretches and yawns.

"We can't take Jamie out that far. It's too long of a walk."

John sighs.

"Damn, I love weddings..."

"We'll get the next one, I'm sure Sarah and fizz won't be too far behind."

John laughs.

"Or Karl and Callie. But yeah, I guess you have a point."

Some giggling and a crash are heard.

"Oh no, what'd she get into now...?"

Zoey gets up and runs to the kitchen.

"Ahhahah! Abababab..."

Zoey picks up the baby, and walks back to John.

John pats the kids head.

"You know, I guess we should've figured that all that stuff I pumped into you would cause something like this."

Zoey sighs.

"It was worth it. Besides, it's not like it's been terrible taking care of her..."

John shrugs.

"Yeah, I guess. I was totally not prepared for an octoinkling this fast though."

Zoey rolls her eyes.

-segmentline-

"So, what do we say?"

Joey and zodiac look at each other before putting their hands up.

"OFF SEASON! OFF SEASON!"

Aurie laughs.

"Alright! Let's play some non competitive matches!"

Zodiac taps Aurie's shoulder.

"Who are we getting for our forth this year?"

"I don't know. We have time to figure it out though."

Joey nods.

"Yeah, we can always just check the backfill list too."

Aurie nods and opens the door to the tower.

"Ah! Aurie, good to see you!"

Aurie smiles.

"Hey, what's up?"

The announcer straightens some papers and smiles.

"The inkopolis tower is now closed!"

Aurie gasps, and Joey and zodiac stare in shock.

"Don't worry, it's moving to inkopolis square!"

Aurie breaths a sigh of relief.

"Is it open now?"

The announcer nods.

"Yep. See you there!"

He takes his papers and leaves.

"Well, guess we gotta get ready for this."

They all walk out and looks around.

"I'm gonna miss this place."

-segmentline-

"Alright... Everyone! The service will start momentarily, so be patient!"

Fizz writes some stuff on his notepad and nods.

"Everyone's here. Now to check on the groom and the...groom."

He walks down the hall, and sees Karl standing outside Anthony's door.

"Ready to walk them down?"

Karl nods.

"Why are we giving them away again?"

Fizz facepalms.

"Because Anthony doesn't want to see his parents and Arron's parents are anti-gay."

"Oh, right."

Fizz walks off, making his way to Arron's room.

He knocks on the door.

"You almost ready?"

"Yeah, just tell me when..."

"It's about that time."

He hears Arron sighs, and the door opens.

"I hate tuxedos..."

Fizz laughs.

"You're looking Sharp there, pal."

"Don't make me have to give you more shit to do."

"On top of reception planner, best man, and technical parent?"

Arron nods.

"I'll make you have to clean up afterwards.",

"Oh, fuck that dude, let's just do this."

He wraps his arm around Arron's, and walks down the hallway, earning a thumbs up from Karl.

"Good luck!"

Fizz leads Arron down the aisle, before unwrapping their arms and giving each other a high five.

They both walk up to the alter.

"I'm nervous."

Fizz snickers.

"Just marry Anthony already, you gay fag."

Arron smiles and turns back torwards the door.

Karl and Anthony walk in, slowly making their way down the aisle.

Sarah comes in behind them, throwing flowers behind them, as well as at several people.

They come up to the alter as well, and they stand on the other side.

Sarah comes up and gives fizz a kiss, before sitting down in the front.

The priest nods and starts reading his whole spiel.

Fizz rolls his eyes and sighs quietly.

Anthony smirks at him and nods.

"...would the grooms like to read off their vows?"

Arron clears his throat and nods.

"Look, I'm no expert at giving speeches like this, and frankly, I didn't want to give one. But I feel it's important to say how much Anthony has changed my life."

He turns to Anthony, who's smiling.

"Ever sense I met you, and by extension, Fizz and Karl, I felt like I belonged. My parent were overbaring as hell and being able to just hang around with some people who didn't care was exactly what I needed."

He turns to Fizz, who nods.

"Now, it was mostly fizz who got me out the initial rut I was in when we all first met, as Anthony and Karl spent more time together without us, and I have to thank you for that."

"It was my pleasure. You were hella quiet and depressing when we first met, and I wanted to change that. Athough, I doubt I was the one who truely did it, was I?"

Arron shakes his head.

"While you did play a big role, it was definitely Anthony who pulled me out of it for good. In the most unconventional way possible..."

Anthony laughs.

"But it was for the best. Everything after that was great! Except for..."

Karl stomps his foot.

"NO. None of that. We put that past us years ago."

Arron smiles and looks back torwards Anthony.

"Point is, I couldn't imagine my life without any of you in it. Thank you, all of you."

The priest nods and looks torwards Anthony.

Anthony nods.

"When I met Arron, the first thing I thought, legitimately, was 'holy fuck, he's so cute.' Then he shot me with an aerospray. So as far as first meetings go, it was unique."

Some laughter from the crowd.

"I started thinking of how I could get him to date me. I eventually settles on the most ridiculous tactic I could've gone for. Fucking him then asking him out. But it worked, so I think I chose well."

Fizz chuckles.

"Just keep your door locked next time."

Anthony laughs.

"Not on your life."

Karl gags.

"But as much as I like joking about it, I love Arron. That will never change. Everything's just better with him."

The priest nods and points to Fizz.

"Would the best man please grab the rings."

Fizz moves back and grabs the rings, before walking back to the priest.

"Do you, Anthony, take Arron to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Anthony grabs the ring and puts it on his finger.

"I do."

"And do you, Arron, take Anthony to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Arron takes the ring and puts it on as well.

"I do."

"Then you may kiss the...groom?"

They move together and kiss, cheers following.

Fizz and Karl fistbump, and cheer themselves.

Anthony breaks apart and looks torwards fizz.

"Well? Can I find out where the reception is now?"

Fizz laughs.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get going."

He starts down the aisle, with everyone starting to follow behind him.

"Did you get the cake?"

Sarah smiles.

"You did a great job."

Fizz sighs.

"I hope so."

-segmentline-

"Woah..."

Aurie, Joey and zodiac gaze in awe at the square.

"This is so cool!"

"Look at the tower!"

"The new shops look amazing!"

They rush around, looking at everything there is to see.

"Hey guys..."

Aurie gestures for zodiac and Joey to come over to her.

"What's this place?"

"Grizzco industries? What do they do?"

Joey shrugs.

"Maybe we'll have to find out sometime, eh?"

Zodiac chuckles.

"Did you guys see the new flounder heights building? Fizz and Sarah have it good!"

Aurie laughs.

"They always have it good. That place is a damn penthouse."

"The fact that they moved flounder heights is kinda funny though. They just want all the super stars to be next to the hotspot."

"No problem for them I'm sure. Sarah and fizz said they planned to move in after the wedding."

"Why weren't we invited again?"

"Close friends only. I guess we don't count."

Joey frowns.

"Ouch. I mean, I see why. But still."

Aurie shrugs.

"Weddings aren't my style anyway. Now turf wars and sex? That's my style!"

Joey rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, and when you come back to the house with a guy every other week, I feel creeped out."

"Well, I can't fuck you guys all the time, I gotta have some variety!"

Zodiac rolls his eyes.

"Whatever. Let's just go sign in."

They start walking torwards the tower.

-segmentline-

They walk into a giant room, and fizz immediately turns and goes to a table on the right.

"Enjoy. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to pig the fuck out on this candy."

He takes a handful and eats it.

Everyone looks around, and starts moving in random directions.

Anthony looks up to the DJ stand, and sees hopper waving at him.

"Hopper?!"

"Yeah! I volunteered to be the DJ when fizz couldn't find anyone. It's nice to see you guys again after so long!"

He flips a record and puts it down, starting the music. A electronic beat starts.

"An old favorite, right?"

Anthony laughs, and goes over to Arron.

""How's my lovely groom doing?"

Arron turns and kisses him.

"Did fizz do a good job or what? A DJ, full buffet AND candy buffet, and colored lights! This is amazing!"

Anthony looks around, and sees the cake on the table, which Sarah is taking a piece of.

She waves at them and gestures torwards the cake.

"Fizz had it specially made, it's a ice cream cake with actual ice cream as frosting!"

Anthony blinks and runs over to the cake.

"How did he know I've always wanted one of those?!"

Arron rolls his eyes and goes over to Fizz.

"This is amazing, fizz. Thank you."

Fizz swallows his candy and shrugs.

"It was no problem. Now go enjoy the reception."

Arron nods and walks off, and Rece walks up to fizz.

"Hey... Thanks for inviting me..."

"No problem. You helped us when everything was fucked, so I figured you deserved an invite."

"You didn't need to..."

"Yeah I did. Now go enjoy yourself a bit, alright?"

Rece nods and walks off.

Callie and Marie walk over to Fizz.

"Nice job Fizz! You might've even outdone me!"

Fizz laughs.

"No, you did better then me. You also had to plan more..."

Callie frowns.

"C'mon, give yourself some credit, this is great!"

Fizz shrugs.

"If you say so."

Marie groans.

"Why won't you take the complement? This is an amazing reception!"

Fizz sighs, and grabs more candy.

"I always feel like I could've done better. You know?"

"That's stupid. You're stupid."

Fizz rolls his eyes.

"Whatever. Just leave me alone."

Callie frowns and is about to say something, when Marie shakes her head and starts pulling her away.

Sarah walks over to fizz and kisses his cheek.

"What's up?"

Fizz sighs, and turns torwards her.

"I won't take Callie's compliment..."

Sarah frowns and leans her head on him.

"But this is a good reception! I mean, I love it, so it must be good."

Fizz chuckles.

"Damn it... Why do you gotta be so cute?"

Sarah smirks and picks her head up again.

"It comes naturally. Now stop feeling bad for yourself and go talk with someone."

She walks off, heading back to the cake.

Fizz looks back at the candy, before taking a handful and stuffing it into his pocket.

"She's right... I should talk to someone."

He looks at Karl, who's discussing something with hopper.

"Yeah..."

"So you do know more songs then?"

Hopper nods.

"Can't play them though. Universe laws and all."

"Man... Can you at least just play one?"

Hopper leans back and smiles.

"Mm... Maybe. Just wait until the end."

Karl grins.

"Hey guys."

Fizz walks up, shoving some candy in his mouth.

"Hey fizz. Great reception."

"Mm. So I've been told."

Hopper laughs.

"Well, any party with me here is automatically amazing, but even without me, this would be a great reception."

He changes the track, and nods his head to the beat.

Karl nods and takes some candy out of fizz's hand.

"The candy bar was a nice touch."

Fizz smiles.

"I got the idea from my aunt's wedding. They had a candy bar for the kids."

"As far as I know, no one here is a kid..."

Fizz smirks.

"What, you're not a kid? Could've fooled me."

Karl punches fizz's arm.

"Shut up, man!"

Hopper sighs.

"I miss when I had friendships like you guys do. My work takes all my time up nowadays. I barely attend my high school anymore..."

"You're in high school? How old are you?"

Hopper smiles.

"I'm 15. Surprised, hmm?"

Fizz narrows his eyes.

"That's not possible. How are you younger than me?"

Hopper shrugs.

"I run alongside the real me. I'm always the same age as him. I love what I do, but... I miss just hanging around."

Karl frowns.

"Why don't you take a break...?"

"I want to, I really do. But ever since I got stuck in a loop of Splatoon fanfics, I've had no god damn break!"

Karl and fizz look at each other.

"Splatoon...?"

Hopper blinks.

"Oh, fuck. Uh... Don't worry about that. The point is, you guys should go enjoy the party! Yeah..."

Hopper starts messing with his mixing table, avoiding eye contact with Karl and fizz.

"Uh, ok. C'mon Karl."

They walk off, and hopper sighs.

"I need a break."

-segmentline-

A young inkling steps into the square and looks around.

"This place looks nice. It's a shame about the plaza though..."

He walks over to grizzco industries, and knocks on the gate.

" Mr. Grizz? I'm here..."

The gate slowly opens, and the inkling walks inside.

"Good, look kid, I need some golden eggs so my business can get off the ground. You need to go out and get a couple. By yourself. Are you sure you're up for this?"

The inkling nods and grabs his roller.

"How many eggs?"

"14. At least. I'll pay you double for every egg rescued after that. Just remember, when you want to leave, get back to the boat. That's your only way out."

The inkling nods and walks to the locker room.

"Salmonoids can't be that bad... This'll be easy money, and then I can finally afford my own place!"

He pulls out a picture of an apartment building.

"It's the perfect spot... Plus, she lives there... I hope."

He stuffs the photo into his pocket and walks to the dock.

"All ready?"

The inkling steps onto the boat and checks his gear.

"Yep. All good."

"Good luck out there kid..."

The boat leaves, blowing steam in it's wake.

"You're gonna need it."

-segementline-

The reception went on for most of the day, with several interesting things happening.

• Anthony, Arron, and Sarah did a triplet of 'get lucky' when it was played. Everyone loved it.

• Rece turned out to be a phenomenal dancer and him and Marie did some ridiculous dance routines.

• Karl and Fizz ate all the candy. All of it.

• Callie and hopper collaborated on a song change that ended up forcing hopper to sing. Everyone was surprised at his ability.

• Pearl and marina showed up later on, and played one of their new tracks for the party. Afterwards, they spent the entire party flirting. With each other. They left after around an hour.

"Well, this has been fun, but I should really be going."

Marie waves at everyone, and walks out.

Fizz frowns.

"Damn, she's gonna miss the drinks!"

Everyone stares at him, when a cart of booze is rolled in through the door.

Marie walks back in.

"Is that beer for us...?"

Fizz nods.

"Well, I just got a new reason to stay."

Everyone starts taking drinks, except Rece, who seems to not like beer.

Hopper levitates a bottle over to him, and laughs.

"Well, I suppose now's a good time."

He pulls out a disk labeled"DAG medley".

"This one's for you, Karl."

Karl pumps his fist, and takes a drink.

He puts this disk in, and jumps onto the dance floor.

"Only, I want to sing it. So get ready!"

The song starts, with a beat no one knows.

He starts moving around, singing, when something wierd happens.

He splits into three, only the other two have inkling and octoling tentacles.

"HEY, HEY, STAY RIGHT THERE, THERE'S DYING LEFT TO DO!"

Everyone stares in amazment, as hopper and his clones dance around, harmonizing.

Some parts he sings are familiar, while others are completely new.

"I'M LOST, IN THE DARK!"

He finishes the song, and the clones seem to dissapate.

He bows, and walks back to his table.

"How was that? Good, right?"

Fizz gets it together first, and nods.

"Yeah, but where did those other two come from?"

Hopper smirks.

"Long story, like... Really. Really. REALLY long."

He shrugs.

"It's no big deal. I use them for harmony anyway."

Everyone else slowly comes to, and goes back to what they were doing.

The party goes on, with everything slowing down around midnight.

"Alright, time to wrap it up. We got three squids drunk off their asses, and we need to get them home."

Anthony puts Arron's arm on his shoulders and starts moving him out.

"Aw... Why *hic* can't we keep going?"

Fizz stumbles a bit, before walking out.

Callie is trying to get Marie to move.

"No, want more beer..."

"You have beer! Let's go!"

Rece is escorting Karl out to the best of his ability.

"Can someone tell me where Karl lives...?"

Sarah walks over, and I use the term walk loosly here, and tells him.

"Thanks..."

Sarah gives a thumbs up, and "walks" out the door.

"Let's get you home..."

Karl hiccups, and mumbles something in response.

"Hey, Rece."

Hopper walks up next to him.

"Yeah...?"

"Here."

Hopper hands him a disk case with a bunch of relics in it.

"You lost this quite some time ago, did you not? I thought I'd return it."

Rece smiles and takes it.

"I thought this was gone for good... Thank you..."

Hopper bows, and walks away, disappearing.

Rece starts escorting Karl out.


	2. Oh baby a triple set up

( You might be wondering what took me so long to post the second story when I mentioned I had already written the whole thing. Well, I needed to re write the middle of it because I became increasing annoyed by how I wrote it. It's a lot better now. By my standards anyway, which are quite low considering that it's this story. Oh, and guess the obvious song is always in play, if you can guess the song, congrats, you win a thumbs up from hopper. I still find it amazing that people actually enjoy this, I mean, are you reading the same thing I am? Anyway, I'm gonna stop rambling. This is the chapter where things start Happening weeeeee )

-chapterstart-

The inkling walks out of grizzco industries.

"Well done kid! Get your payment at the window."

He walks over, and grabs a piece of paper.

"1000 credits?!"

"It's a tough job, and you pulled your weight. Well done. Feel free to come back anytime."

The inkling breaks into a smile.

"YES! I have more then enough!"

He bolts away, heading in an unknown direction.

"That kid's goin places. Big places."

-segmentline-

"You're home..."

Karl stumbles to the couch and falls onto it.

"I'm just gonna go now..."

Karl gets up and coughs.

"No, don't, I need to talk to you."

Rece looks at him for a moment, before walking over and sitting down.

"What do you need...?"

Karl shakes his head a bit.

"I need you... To check on my sister."

Rece raises an eyebrow.

"But..."

"She lives in the outskirts, with her boyfriend and kid. She didn't come to the wedding, and while I'm sure it's just because they didn't want to bring the kid, I still want to make sure."

Rece blinks.

"I... Ok..."

"Just follow the path of burnt bushes. Fizz really doesn't like bushes for whatever reason."

Rece laughs.

"Well...ok...but if I don't come back after a day, come looking for me...ok...?"

Karl nods.

"You'll be fine. The only thing out there is Zoey."

Rece nods, and gets up to leave.

"Get some rest..."

He closes the door.

-segmentline-

Fizz stumbles into his apartment, with Sarah following.

"Ugh...I've never drank that much, ever..."

Sarah giggles and lies down on the couch.

"I'm so druuuunk... Ehehe..."

Fizz picks up her feet, and sits down.

"Who's more drunk...*hic* me, or you?"

Sarah adjusts herself so that her head is on fizz's lap.

"Whichever answer gets me fucked faster..."

"I'm too drunk for this..."

"Fiiiiine... Tomorrow then..."

"Yesss... Toooomorrow."

Fizz moves himself so that he's laying down with Sarah on top of him.

"I'm tired. Sleep time..."

Sarah sighs.

"Yeah..."

They fall asleep, unknown to them, a note on the coffee table goes unread...

-segementline-

"Is it ready?"

"I'm working as fast as I can. If you give me space, I can finish it by next week."

"That's far too slow. We need it done, now."

"I can't rush it, it could short out or worse, explode! You can't hurry me."

"That's not my problem, we need it done! Time is running out, and the window is closing, if we miss it, we'll never get this chance again!"

"I get that, but if I rush this, it won't matter! Tell you what, if I leave some stuff out, I can have it finished in three days. Good?"

"Yes, perfect. That will give us just enough time to prepare."

"How do expect to get past... Them... Anyway?"

"They won't bother. They haven't been in action for ages! We will face little resistance."

"And if we don't? We will have many problems."

"Maybe. But we have a plan..."

"Which would be...?"

"It's not important right now. What is important, is that you finish this thing!"

"I'm going. As fast. AS I CAN!"

"You aren't trying hard enough."

"Oh yeah? What happens when he finds out? He's not going to take it lightly, especially after what happened."

"He... Shut up. He's not important."

"Yeah he is. You need to address the real problems here! All this planning goes up in smoke if anyone finds out."

"Look, he won't find out. I made sure of it."

"You say that..."

"Because I did! He may have forgotten about us, but he'll eventually remember. And then what? That's why I took care of it."

"Yeah, well. We aren't going after him. We're going after-"

"I know who we're going after, thanks. That's not the point."

"The octarians are planning something... You've seen it too, right?"

"They've rebuilt the octoking. Of course they're planning something. But we shouldn't have any problems from them."

"What if-"

"No. And even if they do, agent three will deal with it."

"She hasn't been seen in years! How are we supposed to rely on her?"

"She's around. With the square being built, I'm sure she'll want to come and see it."

"I guess... And what about the sisters? What are we gonna do about them?"

"I don't know. They shouldn't be a problem."

"Everything's not a problem to you."

"Because nothing is! This is all going according to plan. If this damn thing didn't take almost four years to build, I'm sure we would've already acheved our goal."

"Yeah, I guess. Just don't get cocky."

"Mhmm. I'll be back soon, I have some scoping to do."

"Good luck with that."

-segmentline-

Hold on, what the hell is going on? Why are there no bridge sentences? Who the hell is talking there?

( Stop interrupting! You'll have to find out. )

Fine, I won't interrupt anymore.

"Ugh..."

Fizz blinks a couple of times to adjust to the light.

"My fucking head..."

Sarah snuggles more onto fizz.

"Mmm... So warm."

Fizz rubs her tentacles a bit, causing her to relax.

He moves out from under slowly, trying not to wake her up.

He sets her down softly, and walks into the kitchen.

"Aw, fuck... This is why I don't drink..."

He rubs his head, and turns on the sink.

He splashes some water onto his face, and exhales.

"Hey..."

Sarah walks in, holding her head.

"How bad is it for you?"

"My head is pounding like crazy..."

Sarah smiles.

"My head feels like someone threw a brick at it, apologised, and then threw another brick."

Fizz laughs.

"Yep, that sounds about right."

Sarah walks over, gives fizz a kiss, and splashes some water on herself.

"That feels a little better, but I need more rest."

They both walk over to the couch again, sitting down.

"Wait, what's this?"

Sarah picks up a note that was on the coffee table.

Fizz shrugs.

"Maybe the landlord wanted something."

Sarah reads the note outloud.

"To whichever of you gets this note first. I am in need of some Assistance. Your position will come in handy in my endeavour. Come to grizzco industries in inkopolis square if interested. I'm sorry for the weird request, but getting a hold of you two is harder then it seems. -mr. Grizz."

Fizz rolls his eyes.

"Never thought I'd see that old bear again."

Sarah puts down the note and looks at fizz.

"Who is he?"

"He helped me a bit back when I killed that girl. He gave me some advice that went a long way."

"What did he say?"

"That I should hold on to the fact that there was no evidence, and depend on Karl's testimony."

Sarah nods.

"It's good advice. But why does he want to talk to you?"

Fizz shrugs.

"I dunno. I shouldn't blow this off though."

He stands up and heads for the door.

"Oh, you can get started with the packing, if you want. I'll see what grizz wants and get back as soon as I can."

Sarah gives him a kiss and pushes him out.

"See you later, love you!"

"Love you too."

Fizz closes the door, and walks off.

-segmentline-

"It's too early for this..."

Rece trudges through the outskirts.

"I'm sure she's fine... But it's not like I had anything better to do..."

He rubs his eyes and looks ahead.

"How long away is she...? I've already been walking for like an hour..."

His phone buzzes.

"Mmm...?"

He pulls his phone out and stares at it.

"Don't go any farther...?"

He frowns and looks ahead.

"The shack is right there..."

He looks at his phone again.

"Who sent me this...?"

He shakes his head and walks forward.

He opens the door to the shack and gasps.

The shack looks like it's been ransacked. Furniture broken and tossed aside, with the bedroom door sitting off its hinges.

"Oh no..."

He pulls out his phone and begins typing a message.

"I warned you."

Rece narrows his eyes and throws a punch behind him, hitting and making the unknown man stumble.

He kicks him, causing him to fall on the floor.

"Who are you...!"

The man coughs and groans.

"Oof... I came to warn you..."

He starts to get up, but Rece puts his foot on his chest.

"Tell me who you are first...!"

The man sighs.

"Well, name's John, but I'm sure you knew that."

Rece facepalms, and lets his foot up.

"Oh... sorry...I've just never seen you before..."

John gets up and nods.

"I get it. Rece, right? Fizz is very good at descriptions it seems."

Rece nods and looks around.

"What happened here...?"

John shakes a bit.

"A group of...something's... Came in here and threw everything apart before taking Zoey and Jamie away..."

Rece raises an eyebrow.

"A group of something's...? As in, not inkling or octoling...?"

John nods and pulls the couch back over.

"I saw an isopod and some sort of jellyfish, but that's it."

"What happened to you...?"

"I was knocked out. They shouted something about 'keeping it secret', so they took that lamp, and smashed it on me."

He points to a pile of broken glass.

Rece shakes his head and sits down.

"That's... Terrible..."

John puts his hand on his head.

"I..."

He does a shaky sigh, before taking a breath.

"Look, please don't worry anybody about this. This is my problem, not yours."

Rece frowns.

"But we can help... We've had this kind of thing happen before..."

John nods.

"Exactly. That's why telling them wouldn't help. I know what happened back then, Anthony almost killed himself, and Sarah almost died from a bullet wound. I refuse to let that happen to any of you."

Rece slowly nods before turning away.

"Look, just go back, and tell Karl everything here is fine. Please."

Rece stands up, and gives John a hug before walking out.

John sighs.

"Where did they take you..."

-segmentline-

Fizz arrives at the grizzco building, and knocks on the gate.

"Who's there?"

"It's fizz."

He hears the gate slowly open.

He walks in, looking around the building.

"Hey fizz."

Fizz takes a look at the bear statue in front of him.

"Hey grizz, what's up?"

The bear statue shifts a bit, before sighing.

"I need your help with something..."

Fizz shrugs.

"It can't be that bad. You helped me, so why can't I help you?"

The bear "nods".

"You know Pearl and Marina, right? The newscasters?"

Fizz smiles.

"I'm their manager, officially anyway."

Grizz jumps up.

"Really?! Oh, this'll be easy then!"

He hands him a piece of paper.

"This is a favor that Pearl owes me. She asked for some money a while ago, and I told her when I needed help, I would call on her."

Fizz takes the paper and nods.

"But why didn't you just tell her yourself?"

"They keep blocking my calls. I doubt that's Pearl's fault, they are famous after all, but I can't get near them. Figuring out where you live was easier."

Fizz rolls his eyes.

"Alright, so you want them to..."

He reads over the paper.

"Advertise your company, as well as take weekly shifts?"

Grizz nods.

"I have an... Let's say attraction, to golden eggs. The salmonoids lay them, and to get them, you have to go out into their lands and splat them."

Fizz shrugs.

"Doesn't seem too hard."

"Yeah, until the big ones get word and start trying to kill you."

Fizz blinks.

"That's... Wait, you're hiring teenage inklings for this?!"

Grizz shifts a bit.

"I pay good money, and you only get killed if the whole team goes down. I've recruited hundreds, and I've never had anyone die."

Fizz frowns.

"Alright, I'll get this to them."

Fizz waves at the statue and turns around.

"Oh, and fizz? If you're ever in need of some extra cash, I'll be happy to send you out."

"I'll keep that in mind."

-segmentline-

"How's my husband doing~?"

Arron rolls his eyes and turns around.

"Oh, just fine, thanks. Just getting used to the new place."

Anthony looks around.

"It's almost identical to our last place though..."

Arron smirks.

"Yeah, but the living room doesn't have traces of yellow and red everywhere."

Anthony grins and nods.

"Yeah, maybe we should fix that sometime."

Arron streches and goes back to cooking.

"Save it for the honeymoon, pal."

Anthony laughs.

"I feel bad for whoever's gonna clean that room. When is our honeymoon anyway?"

"Not for a while. The resort we picked had honeymoons booked up to next month."

Anthony shrugs.

"Meh, we can hang out with everyone else win the meantime."

Arron takes the pancakes off of his pants and sets them on plates.

They sit down and begin eating.

"Mm. Maybe we should go out with fizz and Karl tonight."

"And get wasted again? The hangover I have is fine, thanks."

"No, I mean like to the concert tonight."

"Who's preforming?"

"Off the hook, turquoise October, and a new band I believe."

"New band? Fizz and Sarah love new bands. Let's do it."

Anthony smiles and adds themselves, Fizz and Sarah, and Karl and Callie to a group chat.

Anthony: Yo, anyone wanna go to that concert later? They got a new band playing!

He sets the phone down.

"I guess we'll see how that goes."

His phones starts buzzing.

"Woah, that was fast."

He reads it.

Fizz: well, I'm running an errand, and Sarah is packing up the house, but we should be free by then. Why's this happening again?

Anthony: Off the hook are celebrating their news reporter job. Don't you know this?

Callie: I'm free, but Karl seems on edge about something. All these new bands are really entertaining to listen to.

Karl: I'm waiting for someone currently, but I will be free by then. And I am not on edge, what gave you that idea?

Callie: The message you sent me that said you were on edge...?

Sarah: I'm only about half done packing, and we still have to move all the stuff, so...

Fizz: I'll be back to help you later, don't worry.

Arron: You guys don't have to go, it was just an idea.

Fizz: No, I want to go. I've seen the new band around before, and they sound good. Plus, who doesn't like turquoise october?

Callie: I've already ordered the tickets, so everyone better show up!

Fizz: I'm gonna be there anyway, remember? I'm off the hook's manager.

Karl: Yeah, but you can't be in the seating area unless you have a ticket.

Fizz: I stand backstage during their preformance, but I do have to leave after they're done, so I guess you have a point.

Anthony: so is everyone going then? Are we agreed?

Karl: sure, sounds fun. Just, no drinking, ok?

Fizz: I'm going. I was anyway, but you know.

Sarah: If fizz goes, I go.

Callie: I bought the tickets, so...

Arron: then it's settled. Meet us outside fizz's new building before the concert.

They set down their phones.

"Alright, plan made. What do we do until then?"

Arron shrugs.

"TV?"

"Yeah, sure."

-segmentline-

"How's it coming?"

"Pretty good. It'll be done on time if that's what your worried about."

"That's not what I'm worried about. You saw what happened to that shack in the outskirts, right?"

"Yeah. That could be a problem."

"Why leave the man though? That's what bothers me."

"No idea... But if we have to do something, we will. This will go off without a hitch.

"Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't worry about it too much... But if it was the octarians, we definitely have something to watch out for."

"Augh!"

"What? What happened?"

"Fucking fuse blew... I need a new one."

"I can't go out tonight, there's a concert!"

"Well, then this isn't getting finished. Just stay out of sight. As long as they aren't at the concert, you'll be fine."

"They will be, and you know that! This is getting ridiculous. All this over a breakup and a murder..."

"He deserves it. And that will never change..."

"So you keep saying, but this could bring more then we expected out. We must be careful."

"I should be the one worried, not you. This is my revenge..."

"I'm not letting you do this, not by yourself."

"Yeah..."

"Look, I'll just get the fuse. It'll be fine."

"Good. Good..."

-segmentline-

Fizz puts his phone away and walks up to the new studio door.

He knocks on it, and hears someone yelp from the other side.

The door slowly opens and Marina peeks out.

"Oh, fizz! Come in!"

She opens the door all the way, and she pulls Fizz in.

"What's up? Me and pearl were just getting ready for the concert."

"The concert that's in 6 hours?"

"We like to practice a lot beforehand."

Pearl walks in, and upon seeing Fizz, grins and walks over.

"My main manager man fizzie! How's it going?"

Fizz cringes at the name, and hands her the paper.

"Grizz wanted me to give this to you, to return a favor you owed him."

Pearl looks at the paper and shrugs.

"Well, we were already gonna advertise his company anyway, but the weekly shifts thing is interesting..."

Marina sits up and messes with her chair.

"Why would we need to take weekly shifts...?"

"No clue, I'm just delivering this because he couldn't contact you."

Pearl groans.

"I told the secretary to let his calls through! Ugh, she's getting her pay docked for this..."

Fizz laughs.

"Well, I need to help Sarah pack up everything, so I'll see you two tonight."

Marina gives fizz a hug.

"You know, we can help you, if you want."

Fizz looks at pearl in suprise.

"...Really?"

"Yeah, really. It's not much trouble."

Fizz pets one of Marina's tentacles on instinct, and Marina purrs.

"Oh! Sorry, when someone hugs me for this long I guess I just assume it's Sarah."

Marina lets go and sighs.

"I don't mind... That feels really nice."

Pearl smiles.

"Well, that's good to know. Thanks fizz!"

"No problem. Now, do you have a way I could transport my stuff?"

"Me and pearl could super jump to each other, and then back to you."

Pearl nods.

"Good idea. I'll head to the new building, you go back with him, and tell Sarah to come to me."

Fizz nods, and starts leading Marina out.

"Hey fizz?"

"Hmm?"

"Why do you like octolings so much? Most of the inklings I've met are super negative torwards them..."

"Simple. I don't like inklings."

Marina frowns.

"But, wait..."

"I know. But I just... Never liked inklings. I blame my parents, and school."

"But why do you like octolings then?"

"Because they don't fuck around. They don't care what anyone else thinks, they only care what they think."

Marina sighs.

"It's that mentality that made the military take over..."

Fizz frowns.

"Maybe. But here? They just seem like no nonsense."

"Is part of it because we're like sex machines?"

"Maybe a little. It's entertaining to see how far you'll go to be honest."

Marina smiles.

"Yeah..."

"Are you ever gonna confess to pearl?"

Marina's eyes fly open and she stammers for a moment.

"H-how did you know?!"

"I see the way you look at her. Plus, the flirting at the reception seemed a bit real."

Marina moves her tentacles away from her face.

"I don't know... Does she even like girls? I just don't want to make everything weird..."

"You'll never know unless you try. Also, how are you not going insane?"

"Being lesbian is so rare in octoling culture it changes the way our body works."

"Woah, so you're more like an inkling?"

"Yeah... But being around pearl still messes with me..."

Fizz smirks.

"How about I see if I can get some hint on whether she likes you or not?"

Marina sighs.

"Please. I would love that."

Fizz nods and opens the door to his building.

"Well, let's get this done."


	3. Pffft, happiness? What does that mean?

( Oh shit not this chapter. Here's where everything takes a complete 180 everyone, so hold on to your hats, because things do not get any better from here. The toll on fizz's health begins, it's only emotional, so it's good. At least for now. Anyway, let's get this train moving, eh? I'm too busy with the salsa vs guacamole splatfest to put too much effort into my notes anyway. )

-chapterstart-

Karl hears a knock on his door and goes over to open it.

"Rece, oh good. Is she ok?"

Rece flinches for a moment.

"Yeah... She's annoyed that you sent me to check on her when you have her phone number though..."

Karl facepalms.

"Ugh, I'm so dumb. Thanks Rece."

"Don't mention it... But can you do something for me...?"

Karl nods.

"Sure, what is it?"

Rece hesitates, before sighing.

"I want to move to inkopolis... But I can't afford it... Can you help...?"

Karl shrugs.

"You could try getting a job here and living with one of us for a while. It's what fizz did."

"But who...? Fizz, Anthony, and you, already have someone living with them..."

"You could try Aurie's... She lives in a turf wars dorm house down the way. She has an extra room I believe..."

"Aurie...?"

"Oh, you never met. I'll vouch for you."

Rece shrugs and stands up.

"Can we go now...?"

"Sure. C'mon."

Karl gets up, and leads Rece out the building and down the street.

He knocks on the door.

"Hey, Aurie? I got someone who needs someplace to stay for a bit."

The door opens, and Aurie looks at Karl before looking up and down Rece.

"Hmm. He looks good enough."

Rece backs up a bit.

"What do you mean...?"

Aurie smiles.

"What, he didn't tell you? I only let squids live here if they follow my rules."

Karl sighs.

"One of which is to have sex with her if she needs it."

Rece blinks.

"Uh... I... Well... I don't know if..."

Aurie walks up to Rece, staring him in the eyes.

"I assure you it'll be good~"

Rece gulps.

Karl rolls his eyes.

"Look, he just needs to stay here for a bit until he gets some money. Try not to scare him off, please?"

Aurie smirks.

"Oh, of course! I wouldn't dream of it!"

She grabs Rece's hand and pulls him in, and closes the door.

Karl laughs.

"He won't survive 2 days in there."

-segmentline-

The inkling looks up at flounder heights.

"I finally have enough..."

He walks in, stopping at the front desk.

"How much for a room?"

The receptionist looks up from his book.

"The initial price is 2000 credits, and the rent is 500 credits a month. Unless you've won a free pass ticket like that guy professor fizz..."

The inkling frowns.

"Professor fizz...?"

"3 time battle winner. You don't know him?"

"I'm kinda new around here..."

"Whatever. Do you want to buy an apartment, sir?"

The inkling pulls put a jar full of credits.

"2000 credits right here!"

"Hmm. Alright. You're in apartment 32. Watch it on that floor, the sisters don't like newbies."

He tosses the key to the inkling, who runs to the elevator.

"Yes! But what did he mean by the sisters?"

He steps out, and opens the door to his apartment, when someone crashes into the floor next to him.

"WOAH!"

Marina shakes her head, and picks up the box she was carrying.

"Alright pearl, last one."

Pearl nods, and calls for Sarah, who walks out and grabs the box.

The inkling stares in amazment.

Sarah walks back out.

"Thanks for your help guys. See you at the concert!"

Pearl and Marina wave, and turn torwards the elevator.

"You-you-offthehook?!"

Pearl grins and marina smiles.

"Hey kid. Did you just move in? Be sure to say hi to these neighbors of yours."

Fizz slams into the ground, before turning humanoid.

"Thanks guys. See you later!"

He walks into his apartment, and closes the door.

Pearl shrugs and goes torwards the elevator.

The inkling takes a deep breath.

"What were you doing just now...?"

Marina looks back and points to the door fizz walked through.

"Our manager lives there. We were helping him move in."

They get into the elevator, and close the door.

The inkling walks into his apartment.

"Holy fuck... No way. No way!"

He lays on his couch.

"This is gonna be great!"

He blinks.

"Wait. Concert?"

He gets up and grabs the laptop out of his backpack.

"Oh shit, there is one. Alright, well, I guess I know what I'm doing tonight."

-segmentline-

"ARE YOU FUCKING INSANE?!"

An inkling is slammed against a wall.

"OH, IM INSANE, AM I?! THIS IS MY REVENGE!"

The inkling coughs, some ink coming out and dribbling down his chin.

"You... Know this is wrong..."

He is smashed against the wall again.

"Yeah? You trying to play Mr high and mighty, huh? Well tough fucking luck, you aren't getting out of this."

The inkling coughs some more, and he feels dizzy.

"Why are you doing this...? This isn't what we wanted..."

The other one lets go of him, causing him to fall down.

"This is what I wanted. And if you're gonna get in the way of that..."

He feels a punch collide with his face.

"I'll make sure you stay down."

The offender walks off, leaving the bruised inkling sitting on the ground.

He coughs some more, ink covering bits of the ground in front of him.

"That...*cough* fucker..."

He slumps over, passed out.

-segmentline-

Fizz looks at a clipboard.

"Alright, you guys are on in five. You all ready?"

Pearl nods, and Marina shrugs.

"Color pulse and ebb and flow, right?"

Fizz nods.

"Then we'll get turquoise october up here for a couple of songs, and then that new band."

"We're called the bottom feeders, just so you know."

Fizz turns torwards the band.

"I'm looking forward to your preformance. Good luck out there!"

The lead member nods and gestures his band over to a part of the stage.

"Alright you two, get ready."

They nod and walk out onto the stage.

Fizz grabs a microphone, and walks out behind them.

"Welcome everyone, to tonight's concert!"

Cheers are heard.

"First up, we have off the hook, followed by turquoise october, and last but not least, the bottom feeders!"

Fizz steps back, and Pearl and Marina start their song.

Fizz walks backstage, and nods torwards turquoise october before sitting in his chair.

Everyone else is watching from the seating area, singing along.

"This is awesome!"

Callie pulls Karl into a kiss, and neither of them pull away.

Sarah looks at the curtain that leads backstage.

"I wish I could at least be up there with him..."

Marie pulls Sarah aside and pushes her torwards the stage.

"So go to him. He'll let you in."

Sarah smiles and runs for the stage.

Anthony and Arron are singing together, taking breaks to kiss.

Sarah knocks on the side door, which is opened by a bouncer.

"No fans allowed."

He starts to shut the door, when Sarah sticks her foot in.

"I'm here to see fizz, not the bands."

The bouncer rolls his eyes.

"Hey fizz, some broad's here to see you."

"Some broad? I don't get any girls asking for me... Unless..."

He runs over to the door and hugs Sarah.

"I knew you wouldn't stay in the crowd without me."

Sarah hugs him back and smirks at the bouncer, who rolls his eyes again.

Fizz pulls Sarah inside, and pulls her over to his chair.

"Where do I sit?"

Fizz sits down, and pats his leg.

Sarah sits down on his leg, holding him to stay upright.

She leans onto him and sighs.

"Thanks for letting me in... I didn't have anyone to talk to out there."

"No problem. Sitting back here is boring anyway."

Ebb and flow ends, and off the hook walks back inside.

"That's your cue, fizz. You can take her out with you if you want."

Sarah gets up, and gestures fizz out, before following.

"Next up: turquoise october with the girl from inkopolis!"

Cheers, along with some whistles.

Fizz smirks and pulls Sarah in.

"Quiet boys, she's taken."

Some groans are heard from the crowd.

Fizz takes Sarah back behind the curtain.

"That's all I have to do. You want to go sit down?"

Sarah pulls fizz in and kisses him.

They stay there for a bit, enjoying themselves.

Tick.

Fizz breaks away.

"...did you hear that...?"

Sarah listens for a moment.

"No...? What am I listening for?"

Tick.

Sarah blinks.

"You need... To get out."

They swing around to the door, which has a bruised inkling with ink all over him is leaning on a wall.

"Time...bomb..."

He collapses, his body sprawling across the floor.

Sarah and fizz look at each other.

"But...?"

"FUCK!"

An inkling stumbles in, and goes over to fizz's chair.

"Not today..."

Fizz clears his throat.

The figure turns around.

"FIZZ?!"

He stands up and scrambles backwards, running out the door.

"...Zack?"

Boom.

-segmentline-

"Where is he...? He should've been back with that fuse ages ago..."

A TV suddenly turns on.

"-4 killed in concert explosion! Investigation begins!"

"N-No!"

The figure gets up, and runs out of the door.

-segmentline-

"...here!"

Callie moves a bit of debris, throwing it to the side.

"Any sign of Sarah or fizz...?"

Callie sighs.

"I've been searching for hours..."

Marie shakes her head.

"I know. I know."

Arron wraps some bandages around Anthony's arm.

"You'll find them. You have to."

Karl rubs his head and coughs.

"That bruised dead inkling made it seem like there was a fight..."

"He was beaten up beforehand."

Everyone turns to look at the inkling, who's holding out a laptop.

"Hey. I'm Joel. I live next to...fizz, was it?"

Marie nods.

"Yeah. I far as I can tell from this security footage, he stumbled in and warned them."

Callie moves another board.

"Wait..."

She moves another one.

"GUYS! IT'S FIZZ!"

Everyone rushes over.

"He seems ok... Mostly just bruised. He might have a concussion."

"Sarah can't be too far away! Fan out!"

They all spread out, moving boards and swiping away dust.

Anthony moves a board and gasps.

"Oh no..."

Arron looks over.

"Is she...?"

Everyone slowly comes over one by one, with joel coming over last.

Callie tries to hold it together, but can't.

Karl hugs her, and looks away.

Arron and anthony comfort each other as best as possible.

Marie shakes her head.

Sarah lays on the ground, ink all around her. Her arm is bent the wrong way, and she has a giant gash through her head.

"She's... Dead. Fuck..."

Joel closes his laptop and sighs.

"I'll... See you guys sometime."

He leaves, and the rest of debris is slowly cleared by everyone, with fizz unconscious on the sidelines.

They find another body, this one also only bruised.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

A female inkling sprints in, slaps anthony, who was holding the new inkling, and picks him up before running off.

"What the fuck was that?!"

Fizz groans.

"Ugh, I could've sworn I heard a voice of someone i hate..."

He gets up, and looks around.

"What happened here...?"

He shakes his head.

"Guys...?"

Everyone looks at him, before looking at each other.

"Fizz... We should tell you something."

Fizz gets up, and looks at Karl.

"What's wrong? I remember the concert... Then the-"

His eyes widen.

"THE BOMB! WHERE'S SARAH?!"

Everyone turns away, except for Marie, who points torwards a small hole in the middle of the debris.

Fizz slowly gets up, and walks over.

He looks down into the hole, and gags.

"It-but-she-no."

He gets down and pulls her head up.

"No."

He traces his hand over the gash on her head.

He takes a shaky breath before standing up.

"She's dead."

He visably starts shaking, before turning and sprinting away, clearly crying.

Marie starts to move, but Karl stops her.

"He needs time."

-segmentline-

John stares at the TV.

He sighs.

"Join the club, kid..."

He gets up and looks over his house.

"Can't live here... Not anymore."

He looks back at the TV.

"It looks like Fizz has an open room. Athough it would probably be best to leave him alone..."

John shakes his head.

"Me and him... We're in the same boat. But at least I have the confort in knowing my love is probably still alive."

He starts throwing some stuff into a bag.

"I'll start walking tomorrow. Maybe they can help find Zoey."

He flinches.

"Karl..."

He sighs.

"I'll have to keep my presence there a secret. This is bad enough, pushing my problem onto anyone would destroy them."

He throws his bag over to the front door.

"I'll figure out something... I hope."

-segmentline-

Pearl looks at Marina, who's softly crying in their waiting chairs.

"What a shitty first day..."

Marina looks up and nods.

"Why did this have to happen?"

Pearl frowns.

"Someone didn't want the concert to happen. We're just lucky barely anyone died."

Marina wipes her eyes.

"Like Sarah...?"

Pearl puts her hand over her eyes.

"Yeah. Like Sarah. Look, we need to find out who did this."

"How do we do that? No one except fizz and Sarah were ever backstage..."

"The bouncer maybe? If it was him, I guess it doesn't matter now."

Marina frowns.

"Don't talk like that... Please."

Pearl sighs and walks over to Marina's chair.

"We can do this, alright? With fizz out of commission, we need to take care of ourselves for awhile."

Marina nods.

"First thing we need to do is find the fucker that did this."

"Yeah..."

Marina gets up and hugs pearl.

"Where should we look first?"

Pearl thinks for a moment.

"The female inkling that ran in. We have her footage, so we should be able to track her down."

Marina nods.

"We start tomorrow. We got this."

Pearl smiles.

"There we go, that's the Marina I was missing."

Marina smiles, and they walk out of the studio.

-segmentline-

"C'mon, wake up, wake up..."

Zack comes to, and coughs.

"Hey... I told you I shouldn't have gone out tonight..."

The female sighs and brings him for a hug.

"Fuckin... Don't do that! You scared me!"

"I wasn't trying to... It was that faggot, Marshall. He's trying to help Fizz..."

"What, by killing him first?! I think he had other motives."

Zack stands up.

"I think we have to postpone this. We can't finish this while this investigation stuff is happening."

The female sighs.

"You're right. I guess we just wait for all this to blow over."

Zack puts his hand on the female's shoulder.

"Don't worry aulbrey, we'll get through this. We should probably move the investigation along though, I'm gonna go scout."

He takes a step, and yells out before falling down.

"Stop! Your leg is broken, you need to rest!"

Zack groans.

"Well fuck. I guess we really do just wait then..."

Aulbrey nods, and grabs some bandages.

-segmentline-

Anthony sits up in bed.

"Can't sleep."

Arron groans in agreement.

Anthony grabs his phone a types a message.

Anthony: I'm gonna take swing here and say no one can fall asleep?

Callie: nope.

Marie was added to group chat.

Marie: All this not sleeping is killing me.

Arron: Fuck... How did this happen?

Callie: Someone wanted to stop the concert I guess...

Anthony: please don't tell me this is another 'the week' situation...

Marie: I get the feeling that it is...

Arron: fizz is still in the group chat, right? I doubt he's sleeping.

Callie: he's not gonna type anything, just leave him alone.

Karl: too late, already sent him 5 seperate messages.

Anthony: typical. Did he answer any of them?

Karl: do I need to state the obvious?

Marie: I can almost hear singing coming from his apartment...

Arron: probably singing the relics to cheer himself up.

Callie: That's not gonna work...

Karl: Marie, maybe you should check on him... Just in case.

Marie: Yeah, good idea.

Marie puts her phone down and walks out of her apartment.

She knocks on fizz's door, only for it to slowly open.

"What the...?"

She walks in, looking around.

"Nothing unusual here... The bedroom maybe?"

She moves down the hallway, stopping outside the closed door.

"Sweet dreams are made of these..."

Marie frowns.

She slowly pushes open the door.

"What do you want."

Marie looks at the bed, which has fizz laying on it, facing the wall.

"I came to check on you..."

Fizz snorts.

"Yeah? Well I'm fine. You can leave now."

Marie walks over and sits on the bed.

"I thought I told you to leave, not sit on the damn bed."

"You need someone here. I know you. You take this stuff deathly seriously."

"I don't want you here, I want to be left alone."

Marie puts a hand on fizz's shoulder, who brushes it off Immediately.

"Fizz, please."

He sits up, turns around, and pushes Marie off the bed.

"Just leave me alone."

He lays back down.

Marie sighs and gets up.

"Fizz, I know this is hard, but you can't just avoid all your problems. You need to talk. I know it."

"WOULD YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

Marie backs up a bit at the sudden outburst.

"No. I'm not leaving you alone."

"A bit late for that, isn't it?"

Fizz suddenly gets up, and pushes Marie out the bedroom door, closing and locking it.

Marie blinks.

"I just wanted to help..."

She turns and starts walking, when she hears the singing start again.

"It's funny 'till you're left to kill yourself."

Marie can feel herself start crying, and she runs out.

-segmentline-

Pearl and Marina look over the investigation sheet the next morning.

"That female inkling is our only lead. We find her first, then go on to the others.

Marina nods.

"Where are we gonna find her?"

Pearl points to the cameras.

"Those. They should've captured where she went."

Marina nods and pulls out her phone.

"She went to the plaza, it looks like. But she goes to the outskirts, and we don't have any cameras for out there."

Pearl groans.

"Of course. Guess we're going to the outskirts then."

"What do we tell the news producer?"

"That we have to figure who caused the bombing."

Marina nods, and they walk into the producers room.

"Ladies, I already know what you want. You can take the day off."

They look at each other and shrug.

"Find the bastard that nearly killed my son, yeah?"

Pearl looks at him.

"Who's your son?"

"Karl."

Pearl's eyes widen.

"And you never told us?"

"Family is sperate from business. Unless it gets to be both, like right now. Now go!"

They nod and run out.

"Remind me to talk with our producer more!"

"Some other time Marina, we got work to do."


	4. Times change, but is it for the better?

( Hey look it's those fanfic references I was talking about. I'm sure if you have read a number of Splatoon fanfictions before you'll see some names you recognize. Keep in mind hopper had traveled to all of the fanfics mentioned before arriving here. Anyway, the aftermath of the concert bleeds onto everyone, and fizz is completely broken. If you are understanding the story so far I can almost guarantee it won't stay that way for long. Keep your train of thought in place and you'll do just fine. )

-chapterstart-

Hopper and octoling stand in the white void.

"I'm just saying, mending time is better then her fractured Spirit."

Octoling frowns.

"No it isn't! Fractured Spirit has better relationships!"

"Mending time has a better story."

A loud scream startles them both, and they turn around.

Marie is pointing at a spot on the 'ground'.

"What's wrong?"

Hopper walks over and frowns.

"An octoling tentacle piece...?"

He picks it up, and inspects it.

"Where did this come from?"

Octoling stares at it for a second.

"It's lifeless. Whoever it belonged to is dead."

Hopper takes a plastic bag and places the tentacle into it.

"Well then it ended up here for a reason, so I should probably keep it."

Octoling nods.

"Good idea. Maybe go check around to see what universe it came from?"

Hopper nods.

"I should probably check fizz's first. The chances are high it came from his."

He snaps his fingers, creating a portal.

"See you later octoling."

"You too."

He steps through the portal.

-segmentline-

Fizz stares at the ceiling.

"Why."

He rolls over and looks at a photo on the bedside. It's a photo that fizz and Sarah took together at Karl's request.

"Why..."

He grabs the photo, and pulls it closer.

"After everything... She died because she couldn't leave me alone."

Fizz puts the photo back down and rolls over.

"I can't do anything without her..."

He slams his head into his pillow.

"Is this how Anthony felt? No... It's worse. Arron was alive."

He rolls over again, looking at Sarah's coat.

"Killing myself doesn't seem horrible right now."

He looks back up at the ceiling.

"Unfortunately, I'm not Anthony. I can't die until the fucker who did this is dead."

He looks at the photo.

"But I can't get up. I can't move. No reason to, after all."

He stares at the photo. It almost seems like it's taunting him, reminding him of the better days.

"I miss you, Sarah. This shouldn't have happened. I'd say that I'd rather be dead, but I wouldn't want this pain forced on you either..."

He closes his eyes for a moment.

"All I can see is you. No matter what. Your smile, your laugh..."

He opens his eyes and looks at the photo.

"Your eyes..."

He tears up, but he wipes them away.

"And now I'm stuck. Split between killing myself and avenging you."

He tries to sit up, but he can't bring himself to.

"This... Feeling. It's the worst thing I've ever felt."

He puts a hand on his chest.

"It's like a hole, right through my chest. The piece taken away from me."

He hears the front door open.

"Fizz...? I need a place to stay for a bit..."

Fizz sighs.

"John... Why now..."

John knocks on the bedroom door.

"If you're in there, I'm gonna set up in the office."

Fizz groans and rolls off of his bed.

He stand up, and opens his door.

"John. Get out."

John sighs.

"Fizz, Zoey's been kidnapped."

Fizz does nothing, until he suddenly collapses onto the ground.

John rushes over to him, and pulls him up.

"I can't. I can't do this."

He walks off, and John sighs.

"I have to find her."

-segmentline-

"Are you sure we should do this?"

Anthony sighs.

"No. But I know what fizz is feeling, and we need to distract him. So let's buy this stuff and go."

Arron nods.

"But why a new game? I've never heard him mention this game..."

"You haven't been talking to fizz enough then. He's obsessed with this game since January."

Arron looks at the box.

"Platoon? What's fun about a game where you go around as humans and shoot each other?"

Anthony shrugs.

"Just grab the squii-u and let's go."

They grab their stuff and walk out.

"You think he'll ever recover from this?"

"I did, didn't I?"

"Because I'm still alive, and you guys rescued me. Sarah's dead, Anthony."

Anthony sighs.

"I know. I don't know if he'll ever get over this. For all I know, he's killing himself right now!"

Arron frowns.

"He's better then that. ...right?"

They look at each other, and begin running.

-segmentline-

Fizz locks his bedroom door and looks around.

"I can't. Everything hurts. Everything."

Fizz walks over to his nightstand and opens the drawer.

"Heh, I guess it's kinda funny in a way."

He pulls out a gun.

"I guess this gun was always destined to kill me."

He checks the magazine, before turning it torwards him.

"I picked this gun up after the worst day of my life. Now it's going to end me on the new worst day."

He pulls the trigger, but it stops.

"The safety's on..."

He flips the switch.

"This is it. My life is over."

He...

Alright, you know what? No.

Fizz lowers the gun.

"Hey! Stop it!"

Fizz throws the gun across the room, breaking it.

"Why?! Why can't you just let me end it?!"

What the fuck is happening here?! You got something you wanna tell me?!

( I have nothing to say. And if I'm not mistaken, you just interrupted the story. )

This is... Insane! I'm not letting the story lose two characters this quickly!

( I'll do what I want, I'm writing the story! )

You're writing it terribly! You killed Sarah, and now you're gonna kill fizz?!

( Why not? It's part of the story, which I AM WRITING. )

"Please, just let me end it..."

Dude. Look at him. He's devastated. Where are you taking this story? Somewhere not fucking depressing I hope...

( I'll do what I want. It's not like you can stop me anyway.)

Fine, but I refuse to let you kill fizz. He's been through enough, damn it.

( Ugh, fine. Let's go back a bit... )

He flips the switch.

"This is it. My life is over."

Something slams into his bedroom door, startling him and making him drop the gun.

"FIZZ, DON'T!"

Fizz drops down and grabs the gun, aiming it at himself once more.

The door flies open, and Anthony tackles him.

"Why are you doing this... I don't want this pain anymore..."

Anthony grabs the gun and throws it to Arron.

"I'm returning the favor. If I wasn't allowed to kill myself back then, you sure as hell can't do it now."

"I just want to die..."

Anthony sighs.

"Yeah, I know. But you can get through this."

"No, I can't. Everything hurts. Nothing feels worth it."

Arron bends down and grabs the gun, pocketing it.

"You're coming to live with us for a bit. I am not letting yourself do this."

Anthony nods.

Fizz closes his eyes.

Arron looks at him.

"He passed out. Come on, let's carry him."

They pick him up and move out the door, with John looking on in disbelief.

"I guess I get this place to myself then...?"

-segmentline-

Pearl looks at the small shack.

"That's Zoey's place, right?"

Marina nods.

"Alright, well, where is that girl then?

"I dunno. We won't find her here though."

"Oh really?"

They swerve around, and aulbrey stands there, annoyed.

"You!"

"Yes, me. Now what do you want?"

"Did you cause the concert bombing?"

Aulbrey laughs.

"No, but my boyfriend almost died in it. The culprit is a man named Marshall."

Marina frowns.

"Marshall? Where can we find him?"

Aulbrey sighs.

"I don't know. He's in the city somewhere."

Pearl shrugs.

"Good enough for me. C'mon Marina."

They start walking away, and aulbrey rolls her eyes.

"Accusing me of bombing a concert? Who does she think she is?"

Zack limps over to her.

"So when can we get back to building our weapon?"

She waves her hand at him.

"In a minute, in a minute."

-segmentline-

Rece sits up in the bed.

"Ugh... What happened..."

Aurie sits up and kisses Rece.

"We fucked for hoooours! I haven't had somebody last that long in bed for years!"

Rece blinks.

"What...?"

Aurie streches, and the blanket falls down, showing off her bare chest.

Rece blushes and looks away.

Aurie smirks and lays down on Rece's lap.

"What's wrong? Embarrassed?"

"I'm shy..."

"Really? I wouldn't have guessed, based on how hard you pounded me last night!"

Rece shivers.

"Did... Really...?"

Aurie sits up and hugs Rece.

"You were amazing. You don't need to be so reserved..."

She pulls her head up to see Rece staring at her with a reserved look.

She frowns.

"Do you regret it?"

Rece shakes his head.

"No... It just feels wrong..."

Aurie smiles and pulls rece in for a kiss.

He slowly returns it, and they keep going for a while.

Aurie breaks away, and looks at Rece, who's panting slightly.

"Did that feel wrong?"

Rece looks at Aurie, before smiling.

"No. It didn't."

-segmentline-

Fizz stares at the ceiling.

"What do you think he's thinking about?"

He doesn't like these two. They stopped him from ending his pain.

"No idea. Hopefully he's trying to look on the bright side."

"Dude. It's fizz."

Is pain all he's allowed to feel now? It's like when he was tied to that bed...

"We should leave him be. If we hear anything, we come back."

"Yep. Alright fizz, call us if you need anything."

"I need that gun."

"No you don't."

He hears them walk out.

"It hurts so much. So much."

He turns himself over, looking at the door.

"She was my everything... No one can ever fill that void..."

He hears voices.

"What do you mean? We can't take care of her."

"You have to! We can't find fizz anywhere!"

"Alright, fine. I guess we can take her for a few days."

"Thank you! We'll be back in a couple of days."

Fizz turns over.

"We should show fizz."

"Really...? I don't know about that."

"Just trust me."

He hears the door open.

"He's right there."

Fizz groans.

"Unless you're here to bring me that gun, I-"

"Bubda!"

Fizz sits up and turns immediately.

"Hayden?"

The tiny slightly humanoid squid jumps on to fizz.

"Hi budba! I haben't seen you for forever!"

"Hayden... Hi..."

"What's wong bubda?"

Fizz sighs, and lays down.

"Don't worry about it... It's not for you to know."

Hayden frowns, and jumps on fizz's head.

"You can tell me! I'll keep it a secret!"

Hayden does a shushing noise for effect.

Fizz smiles.

"No, I don't need it to be kept secret. I just don't want you to worry about me."

"Why wouldn't you wanna be worried about?"

Fizz sighs and pulls Hayden off his head.

"I'm going through something right now, alright? You'll understand someday."

"But I wanna understand noooooow!"

Fizz sighs and sets Hayden down, and he lays back down.

"Bubda?"

Arron comes over and picks up Hayden.

"Bubda needs a break right now Hayden, let's go to the living room, ok?"

"Ok..."

Arron walks out, and Anthony goes and sits on the bed.

"Fizz, c'mon. You can't be like this forever."

"Why not? I have no point in being anything else."

"Because you still have stuff to do. You're still off the hook's manager, for one."

"They can do just fine without me."

"Maybe, but they like having you around! You can't just give up."

"I already have."

Anthony sighs.

"Fizz, I know how this feels. But it gets better."

Fizz growls.

"Your boyfriend was still alive, thanks. You had the hope of him coming back. Sarah's dead."

"Didn't make it any better. I thought he was gone for good."

"Yeah, the difference is I KNOW she's gone for good."

Anthony shakes his head.

"You gotta stop thinking like that. She may be gone, but you are still here! You can still do something about it! Laying here doing nothing is helping no one."

He gets up, and looks at fizz.

"Look, I get it. You feel like your life is over, and doing anything is pointless, but you gotta remember there are other girls. Other octolings, even."

Fizz does nothing.

"Even if you don't want to date, you still have Pearl and Marina. So don't you lay there and tell me life is meaningless."

Anthony streches, and walks out.

Fizz sighs.

"He's right... But I can't bring myself to do anything..."

His phone buzzes, and he picks it up.

"Fizz, we found out the culprit is someone named Marshall. We're trying to figure out where he is currently. -pearl."

Fizz reads the message again. And again.

"I am going to fucking strangle him, then I'm going to rip his tentacles off, and then I'll fucking stomp his head in."

He stuffs his phone in his pocket and gets up.

He punches the door open, and storms down the hall.

"Fizz...?"

"I WILL DESTROY HIM!"

Fizz walks out and slams the door.

Arron and Anthony look at each other.

"Should we stop him...?"

Anthony shakes his head.

"No. If he has a purpose, we shouldn't interfere."

Hayden jumps down and swims over to the door.

"Where's bubda going? Will he be back soon?"

Arron walks over to her and picks her up.

"I don't know. But I'm sure he won't be long."

-segmentline-

John moves some papers around.

"She could be... No. That's not right..."

He takes the pen out of his mouth and writes something down.

"Alright, I've narrowed it down."

He pulls out two papers.

"Octo valley, or the plaza."

He sighs.

"Guess I'll search them."

He hears the door open, and he gets up and goes into the hallway.

"Fizz...?"

Fizz is grabbing random stuff before nodding at John.

"If that asshat thinks he can kill my girlfriend and get away with it..."

John frowns.

"Where are you going?"

"The plaza. I gotta find the faggot that killed Sarah."

John looks at his papers.

"Can I come with you?"

Fizz looks at him.

"If you're looking for Zoey, then I guess. We are in the same boat, kinda."

John smiles and grabs a bag.

"Can we leave immediately?"

"Hell yeah! Just let me get some stuff ready."

Fizz stuffs more stuff into a bag.

"Where are we checking first?"

"I'm going to the old tower. He always loved that place..."

John nods.

"Alright. I'm gonna check the stores. If I finish before you come out, I'll come to you."

"Sounds good... Alright. I'm good. Let's move."

Fizz swings the bag over his shoulder, and walks out.

"Alright then. I will find you Zoey... I will."

John follows fizz out.

-segmentline-

Rece sits on the couch.

"Ooh, new guy. Hey!"

Rece looks over to the doorway, where zodiac and Joey are.

"Hey..."

"Oh, it's Rece. What are you doing here Rece?"

"I'm living here..."

Joey laughs.

"Has aurie seduced you yet? She usually gets the newbies in less than an hour."

Rece shrinks down a bit and is about to say something, when a chuckle comes from behind him.

"I haven't done him yet. Karl didn't want me to scare him off."

Rece turns around and looks at Aurie, who winks at him.

Zodiac shakes his head.

"Forshame... It's been half a day, and you haven't fucked him yet? Disgraceful. I think your losing your touch!"

Aurie narrows her eyes and walks over to zodiac.

"Oh, have I now~?"

Zodiac shivers, and exhales.

"Ooh... I stand corrected."

Joey chuckles.

"Never underestimate the seduction power of a nyphonic octoling."

Aurie frowns.

"Nyphonic?"

Joey nods.

"It's a term relating to nyphomaniac. It means someone with an abnormally high sex drive."

Aurie smiles and nods.

"I like it. And it's true, sooooo..."

Zodiac takes a deep breath and throws his stuff down.

"Well, I'm gonna go make some dinner. Who wants spaghetti?"

Joey nods.

"Sounds good. Lay off the parmesan this time though."

Zodiac nods and enters the kitchen.

Joey streches and sighs.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower. If I'm not out by the time dinner's ready then just put it on the plate."

He walks off, leaving Aurie and Rece alone.

"Why did you lie to them?"

Aurie turns and walks over to Rece, and sits down next to him.

"You said you were shy. I figured they didn't need to know."

Rece smiles and kisses Aurie's cheek.

"Thanks."

Aurie smirks and pulls him in for a real kiss, surprising Rece.

A crash from the kitchen startles them.

"WHO STACKED THE PANS IN THE TOP CUBOARD?!"

Aurie laughs.

"I like them better up there!"

"AAAAAA! SOMEONE GET ME SOME ICE!"

Aurie gets up and walks into the kitchen.

Rece also gets up, and follows Aurie into the kitchen.

Zodiac is sitting on the floor, rubbing his head, with pans all around him.

"That looks like it hurt..."

"Yeah, it fucking did. Now get me some ice!"

"Alright, alright. Don't yell at him."

Aurie grabs an ice pack out of the freezer and tosses it to zodiac.

"Sss...ow..."

Rece grabs a pan off the floor and puts it on the stove.

"Can you still cook...?"

Zodiac stands up, and pulls a case of noodles down.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just stop stacking the pans up there Aurie."

"Hah, not gonna happen."

Zodiac groans, and shoos them out of the kitchen.

Aruie sits down on the couch again, and beckons Rece over.

He sits down, and she leans on him.

"It's been a while since I met someone like you."

"Oh really? Who else was as shy as me?"

Aurie smiles.

"Panda... I would've stayed with him if he..."

Rece pats her head.

"Shh. I know."

Aurie sighs.

"It's nice to find someone like you... The shy ones always understand."

Rece nods.

"I try my best to anyway..."

They sit there for quite a while, with Aurie eventually falling asleep.

"Dinner's ready!"

Rece looks down at Aurie.

"I shouldn't..."

He slowly lowers her down, and goes over to the table.

Zodiac and Joey are eating.

"Hey, where's Aurie?"

"Sleeping..."

"Ah, she must be worn out today."

Rece nods.

"It's fine, she'll wake up and be super fucking horny."

"Uh...really...?"

"Yeah. She'll take one of us back to fix it. You might be picked too, so be prepared."

Rece nods.

-segmentline-

Marshall throws the TV remote onto the ground.

"FUCK! FUCK!"

He kicks a wall, and yells out in pain.

"It was only supposed to take out the new band, not bring the whole damn stage down!"

He looks at the list of dead.

"Now I killed Sarah, which means fizz is gonna fucking rip me apart..."

He crumbles up the list and tosses it behind him.

"He won't find me for a bit... I hope. I just gotta get out, then everything will be fine."

He grabs his gun, and points it at a target on the wall.

"Everything started with you, and I don't plan to keep pretending to be ok with it."

He shoot the target, causing the piece of paper taped to it to fall down.

It's a picture of aulbrey.

-segmentline-

Karl takes a bite of his sandwich.

"Do you think fizz is ok?"

Karl shrugs.

"He probably wants to die. Anthony wanted to, and Arron was still alive, so..."

Callie frowns.

"Should we help him?"

"Nah, Anthony's got this. He knows more about this than I do."

Callie leans on Karl.

"Promise me, if I ever die like that, you won't give up."

Karl nods.

"I wouldn't give up like that. Besides, I refuse to let you die anyway."

Callie giggles.

"My hero!"

Karl smiles and leans back.

"I know, I'm just sooooo heroic, aren't I?"

Callie smirks.

"You're a hero in your own way. The way I happen to enjoy!"

Karl laughs.

"That's all you need, right?"

Callie nods and stands up.

"Excuse me for a minute."

She walks off, and Karl yawns.

His phone buzzes.

"Hmm?"

He pulls his phone out.

Anthony: just so everyone knows, fizz ran out of our apartment earlier screaming ' I will kill him'.

Karl: uhh, what?

Marie: did someone tell him who did it?

Arron: maybe Pearl and Marina did? They did say they were gonna investigate.

Karl: should we be worried?

Anthony: No. He needs something to take his mind off of everything.

Fizz: I'm fine. I'm going to the plaza with John.

Karl: with John? Why?

Fizz: Zoey was kidnapped, and John thinks she might be in the plaza.

Anthony: what?!

Arron: no way.

Marie: Why?

Fizz: how should I know? Look, we're almost to the plaza. I'm turning my phone off.

Arron: Karl? You ok?

Anthony: Karl?

Karl: I... I need some time.

Marie: of course. No one else message through here.

Karl sets his phone down and takes a few deep breaths.

Callie walks back into the room and sits down.

She frowns when she looks at Karl.

"Are you ok...?"

"Check... Your... Phone..."

Callie grabs her phone off the table and opens it.

Her expression slowly turns from confusion, to suprise, then sadness.

"Oh... Karl, I'm so sorry."

Karl shakes his head.

"Don't... Worry about it. I know she's fine. She has to be..."

Callie hugs Karl, who wraps his arms around her in response.

"They'll find her."


	5. The fall, and subsequently, the rise

( I could make just so many puns from the events of this chapter alone. Oh, and something I always laugh at, the analytics of these stories. I look at the first story's views, and the first chapter has so many more views than any other chapter. Now, I like to think that people are like "hmm what could this be?" And then get about halfway through before just bailing on the whole thing. It makes me laugh. Anyway it's time for like revenge or something. Insert train pun here. )

-chapterstart-

Anthony sets down his phone and looks at Hayden.

"Antony! Look!"

She jumps up and does a flip before landing on her face.

"Ow..."

Anthony chuckles and picks her up.

"You can't just do flips like that, you'll make everyone jealous!"

Hayden claps her tentacles together.

"Yay! Everyone jealous!"

Arron walks back into the room.

"Hows my favorite child?"

"Antony, can I show him my trick?"

Anthony sets her down, and she does the flip again.

"Wow, good job Hayden!"

Hayden jumps up and down while laughing.

Arron picks her up and pats her head.

"Time for bed, ok?"

"Noooooo! I don't wanna!"

"If you go to sleep now, you can show bubda your trick tomorrow!"

Hayden pouts, before huffing.

"Fine! I wanna show bubda my trick."

Arron smiles and takes her down the hall.

He sets her down in her bed they have set up in the guest room.

"Good night Aaron..."

He pats her head and leaves.

"She's good."

"Alright, what do we about all of this?"

"Nothing...? If fizz and John are searching, all we can do is sit and wait."

Anthony sighs.

"Didn't we say we were done with this shit? Why does this always catch up with us..."

Arron shakes his head.

"It's even worse then before too. Hopefully we can get this all sorted out soon."

Anthony nods.

"How about we try and find some stuff out tomorrow? Just so we don't feel useless."

Arron smiles.

"Yeah... Let's get to sleep though, I'm tired."

"Hayden does have that effect."

"She makes up for it by being adorable. How did she learn how to flip?"

"No idea."

Arron yawns and walks to the bedroom.

Anthony follows him, and he shuts the door behind him.

-segmentline-

"We're here."

Fizz takes a look around the plaza.

"Alright, I'm heading to the tower. You start at ammo knights and make your way around."

John nods, and runs off.

"Alright you fucking murderer, where are you?"

He runs into the tower and looks around.

"Where are you..."

He rushes up the steps when hears a voice.

"Fuck, fuck... Alright, I leave tomorrow. Fuck, why did this happen? I just wanted that band gone...!"

Fizz growls and slowly moves up step by step.

"Damn it... I dont have enough money for the train, I'll have to walk."

He peeks over the top step, and sees Marshall rushing around, throwing things into a duffel bag.

"Alright... I'm good. I-I-I just... Need some rest."

Fizz steps onto the floor.

"You're gonna need a lot more then that after I'm done with you."

Fizz punches Marshall in the back of the head, causing him to stumble forward.

He grabs his head turns around.

"F-Fizz!? Nononono..."

Fizz steps forward, raising his fist again.

"No, Fizz!"

Fizz punches him in the face, knocking him down.

"I suppose it wasn't your fault, right? It was all a mistake, RIGHT?!"

Marshall takes a shaky breath, and stands up.

"I just wanted to get rid of that band!"

Marhsall swings a punch torwards fizz, which fizz steps back to avoid, before swinging one back, hitting his back.

"YOU KILLED SARAH!"

Marshall swings back up, slamming fizz's chin upwards.

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!"

Fizz stumbles back, before growling.

"You want a fight? Fine."

Fizz runs torwards Marshall, tackling him.

Marshall pushes him off, before crawling over torwards his duffel bag.

Fizz kicks his leg, causing him to stumble.

Fizz gets up, and kicks Marshall over, causing a groan.

Marshall kicks fizz's leg, causing fizz to yell out in pain.

Marshall scrambles up, and stuffs his hand into the duffel bag.

Fizz recovers and grabs marshall's other arm, pulling him back. The duffel bag flies off the table it was on and spills onto the floor.

Marshall punches fizz's arm, and reaches for the duffel bag.

Fizz shakes his arm off and punches Marshall down, before putting his hand on his back.

Marshall rolls over, crushing fizz's hand, and grabs something out of the pile.

Fizz stands back up, and grabs his hand.

Marshall turns right side up and a gunshot rings out.

Fizz opens his eyes, and looks at himself, but when he sees nothing, looks at Marshall.

Marshall is staring torwards the stairs.

Fizz turns around.

"Did...did it hit me?"

John stands at the stairs, looking at fizz.

Fizz looks at John's chest, and sees ink traveling down his arm.

"Yeah. It did. Get yourself out of here, now."

John takes a deep breath and nods before turning and running down the stairs.

Fizz turns back to Marshall, who's pointing the gun at him.

"Marshall. Put the gun. DOWN."

"Get away from me. GET AWAY FROM ME."

Fizz takes a step forward, and Marshall tries to fire the gun. It clicks.

"What...? Oh, fuck I left the bullets out!"

Fizz dives onto Marshall, grabbing the gun and pushing it away.

Marshall forces the gun into fizz's head, and he gets up.

Fizz bites Marshall's leg, and he screams in pain before falling forward.

Fizz gets up, grabs the gun off of Marshall and points it at him.

"No, fizz, please... Don't kill me, PLEASE!"

Marshall gets on his knees.

"Please don't... Please please please..."

Fizz puts the gun down.

"I'm not gonna kill you."

Marshall sighs.

"But the fall will."

Fizz kicks Marshall in the chest, causing him to fall backwards and tumble down the stairs, screaming all the way.

Fizz hears a loud snap, followed by silence.

He looks at the gun, before throwing it away.

"That was for Sarah, you piece of shit."

He exhales before collapsing in place.

-segmentline-

Pearl rubs her eyes.

"We need to turn in... I'm tired."

Marina yawns.

"Yeah. We'll figure this out tomorrow."

They walk into their house, and pearl flops on the couch.

"All that walking killed my legs."

Marina sits on the armrest.

"Tell me about it, my legs feel like they've been grinded..."

Pearl laughs.

"You need to get out more."

Marina smiles, and stands up.

"Are you gonna come to bed? Or am I gonna have to carry you."

Pearl chuckles and looks up.

"Is that an invitation?"

Marina smirks and picks pearl up.

"Woah! Marina's got some strength!"

"Come on, I'm taking you to bed."

"Well, I'm in your arms here, so take me to my abode, my angel!"

Marina giggles and walks into Pearl's room.

She sets pearl down on her bed, and sighs.

"Thank you marina. I'll see you tomorrow."

Marina nods.

"Goodnight pearlie."

She walks out, and gets into her own bed.

"Tomorrow. I'll tell her tomorrow."

She closes her eyes and rolls over.

"I can't hold this to myself anymore."

-segmentline-

"Ugh..."

Fizz opens his eyes.

"My head..."

He looks at his position, which is dangerously close to the stairs.

"Oh, fuck!"

He scoots back.

"What happened again...?"

He looks around at the pile of stuff and the duffel bag.

"Oh. Right."

He stands up, and walks down the stairs.

"That's a lot of ink."

A trail of ink begins halfway down, and more of it covers the stairs as he goes down.

"Woah... How much did he...?"

He arrives at the bottom.

"Holy fuck...damn."

Marshall's corpse is twisted and mangled, with his neck snapped and his joints pointing in every direction. The look plastered on his face is of pure terror.

"Heh. Fucker deserved that."

He bends down and looks over Marshall.

"Broke his arm first, caused that ink on the steps... His legs went Soon after, and looks like he broke his neck on the landing."

He shakes his head.

"I almost feel bad. Must've hurt. Reeeeeal bad."

He growls.

"Makes up for the pain I'm going to feel for the rest of my life."

He looks at the corpse again, before ripping off one of his tentacles.

"A prize. Not like you're gonna need it anyways."

He walks out of the building, and looks at the trail of purple ink heading off into the distance.

"Shit, John!"

He starts running down the trail.

He pushes open the door to the hospital, and moves for the desk.

"Hey, did any octolings come in here recently?"

The lady at the desk nods.

"Yeah, he's in room 24."

Fizz shivers.

"The same room..."

He walks down the hall.

"Just rest for a bit and you'll be ok.".

Fizz walks into the room and sighs.

"Oh, good. You made it."

John looks at Fizz and nods.

"I almost passed out, but the doc here caught me."

"Hey fizz."

"Hey doc. How you been?"

"Good, wife's pretty far along now..."

"Good to hear."

"How's Sarah?"

Fizz takes a sharp intake of air and backs up.

John sighs.

"She died at the concert bombing..."

The doctor's eyes widen.

"Oh, I am so sorry..."

"No, no. It's fine. I just... It's fine."

The doctor sighs and turns to John.

"He'll be fine. He just needs around an hour of rest."

Fizz sits down in a chair.

"Cool, we can all catch up."

The doctor smiles and leans against the wall.

"Where do I start?"

-segmentline-

"ANTONY!"

Anthony scrambles back and yells out, only to sigh in relief when he sees Hayden.

"Hayden, don't scare me like that."

"Sorry... But I'm hungry."

Arron groans.

"Alright, alright... Just give us a minute."

Hayden bounces a bit and jumps down.

Anthony sits up and streches.

"Mmmmfukin kid."

Arron laughs and pushes Anthony over.

"Get up, just be glad we won't accidentally have any kids ourselves."

"Yeah, Hayden's enough, and we barely see her!"

Anthony gets out of bed, followed by Arron. They get dressed and walk out into the kitchen.

"Yayyy! Bwekfast!"

Anthony smiles and grabs some cereal.

"What would you like, Hayden?"

"I want the marshmallow ones!"

"No, we can't have you hyped up on sugar this early."

"But I want the marshmallow onesssss!"

She jumps up and down in her chair, and Arron rolls his eyes.

"How about we give them for a snack later?"

Anthony nods.

"Are you good with that Hayden?"

"Ok... But I'm still hungry now!"

"Alright, how's about some..."

Arron picks a box out and shows it to Hayden, who bounces a bit.

"Yes, yes, that one!"

Arron nods and pours it into a bowl for Hayden.

Hayden digs in, and Arron turns to Anthony.

"Mind if I take a nap? All this... Stuff, is really getting to me."

Anthony gives Arron a kiss and nods.

"You don't need to be worried about all of this. Get some rest."

Arron sighs and walks away.

"Where's Aaron going?"

Anthony runs to Hayden, and sits down.

"He's getting some sleep. It's been stressful around here."

Hayden takes another bite of the cereal and frowns.

"Stwessful...? What does that mean?"

"Uh... Have you ever been mad?"

"Yes..."

"It's like being mad, except you aren't angry at someone, you're angry at everything."

Hayden seems to be thinking about something.

"Is bubda stwessed?"

Anthony nods.

"Yeah. He... Had something bad happen to him. He's still recovering."

Hayden whines.

Anthony picks her up and pats her head.

"It's ok. He'll be fine. He's coming back soon, I believe."

His phone buzzes, and he picks it out of his pocket.

Fizz: The fucker who killed Sarah is dead. John was shot, and we're hanging at the hospital for a bit until he's good to move.

Marie: yeah, but now we have the other problem.

Anthony: yeah. Zoey. What's the plan with that?

Fizz: fuck if I know, John might keep looking, but I need a fucking break. I'll take Hayden off of you Anthony.

Anthony: No. She doesn't know about Sarah yet. She doesn't have to know. She's staying with me and Arron.

Callie: yeah, let's not trouble her with this.

Fizz: fuck, yeah. I can't tell her about this yet. Don't tell her anything, please? You know how she gets.

Anthony: I won't. Speaking of which, I better get back to it. I'll talk to you guys later.

Marie: fizz, I want to talk to you about something. Can you come over later?

Fizz: I'll drop John off at my place and come over. It shouldn't be too much longer.

Karl: I'm going out with John to find Zoey. I can't lose her again, not like this.

Fizz: He says it's fine. Just try and keep a level head, ok?

Karl: says the person who killed someone to fix himself.

Fizz: Your sister is still alive. when her, or Callie for that matter, gets murdered, and you know exactly who did it, then talk to me about going overboard.

Callie: look, just don't worry about it, ok? Everything's going to work itself out.

Fizz: no. It's not. I gotta go.

Karl: he's right. Even if we find Zoey, Sarah's still dead. And I don't think fizz will ever get over it.

Callie: I guess. But we gotta be positive about something through all this, right?

Anthony smiles and puts his phone down.

Hayden is dancing around in the living room.

"Look! Look! I'm doing it!"

She trips, and fall down.

"Aw, I was doing so good!"

Anthony chuckles.

-segmentline-

Pearl wakes up to her phone buzzing.

"Who the fuck is texting me this early?"

She picks up her phone and raises it to her face.

"I killed the concert bomber. You can check out the body if you want. It's in the plaza tower."

Pearl frowns and sits up.

"Fuck...fizz, how do you do these things?"

She gets up and changes, before walking out and sitting on the couch.

Marina walks out a moment later and yawns.

"Morning."

Pearl nods and gestures her over.

"What's up?"

Marina walks over and looks at her phone.

"Oh. Well, I guess it's over then?"

"Yeah. We should go pick up the body. Confirm who it was and all that."

Marina nods and stands up.

"The tower's not too far from here. Let's just get this done."

Pearl nods and stands up.

"Alright, let's go."

They walk out their house, and start moving to the tower.

"Do you think it was wrong of fizz to kill him?"

"Maybe."

Marina sighs.

"It just seems drastic. Maybe he could've just captured him...?"

Pearl shakes her head.

"A grieving man knows no boundaries. Or logic, for that matter. He had nothing in mind except his death, and there was no other way it was gonna go down."

"I suppose..."

They walk into the tower, and see the body immediately.

"What did he do?!"

Pearl gags, and leans down.

"Look at the stairs. He probably pushed him down."

Marina nods.

"Woah... Shit, that's brutal!"

Pearl gets back up and pulls out her phone.

"I'm calling the police, they can clean this up. But it's definitely him."

Marina nods and walks up the stairs.

"I'm gonna check out the top. See if I can find anything else."

Pearl nods.

Marina walks up the stairs, making sure to not slip on the ink.

She reaches the top, and looks around.

"What is all this stuff?"

She looks over to the tossed gun.

"Was this Marshall's? Or...fizz's?"

She picks it up, and inspects it.

"Who puts the bullets in every other chamber?"

She empties the gun and puts it in her jacket.

"Not much else of use up here."

She turns and starts back down the stairs.

"I'm gonna have to talk to fizz later. See if he really meant to do this."

She's almost down the steps, when she slips on the ink, falling face first on the floor.

"MARINA! ARE YOU OK?!"

Marina stands up and wipes the ink coming from her nose.

"Yeah... Just a noseink. I'll be ok in a bit."

Pearl runs over and hugs her.

"Be more careful next time! If you had tripped farther up..."

Marina sighs and pets Pearl's head.

"It's ok, I just wasn't paying attention."

Pearl releases her and nods.

"Did you find anything up there?"

Marina pulls out the gun.

"This. The bullets were loaded in every other chamber for some reason."

Pearl takes the gun and looks at it.

"Fizz wouldn't carry around a pissy little pocket pistol like this. The only gun he owns was the one he was almost killed with."

"Are the police coming?"

"Yeah. We should leave."

Marina nods, and they exit the tower.

"Hey, I'm gonna go talk to fizz, alright?"

Pearl shrugs.

"Fine with me. I'm gonna try and work on a new track. I'm think heavy techno this time, what do you think?"

Marina nods.

"Some brass too, for effect."

Pearl smiles.

"Not bad. I'll get on that."

-segmentline-

Marie hears a knock at her door.

She goes over and opens it, gesturing for fizz to come in.

"Glad you could come."

"Yeah, killing him that fast left me a lot of time. What's up?"

Marie shifts in her seat a bit.

"I was... Hoping we could start over."

Fizz looks confused.

"What do you mean...?"

Marie sighs.

"I hate the way things ended up between us. With Sarah gone, I just thought-"

"That you could fix everything between after all this time?"

Marie shakes her head.

"I never felt like I truly apologised. And I never could get your attention for very long, because of Sarah. I understand, of course, but..."

She puts her face into her hands.

"I never got over you. Even after all this time, it just never left."

Fizz frowns.

"So, you're asking me out. After my girlfriend died 2 days ago?"

Marie shoots up and shakes her head.

"No, no! I... Just thought you should know. If you ever decide-"

Fizz stands up.

"Look, Marie. What happened in the past, I won't ever forget that. Everything you did, it fucked me up bad."

Marie sighs.

"However, with everything going on, I think you deserve a chance. But I won't go out with you now. You have to give me time to recover, alright?"

Marie nods.

"Look, I need to go. John's gonna lose his mind if I don't keep him under control."

Marie nods, and stands up.

Fizz pulls Marie into a hug, which Marie returns after the initial surprise.

"Take care, fizz."

"You too."

Fizz lets go, and walks out the door.

Marie sits back down and sighs.

"Damn it... Why can't I get over him..."

-segmentline-

Hopper looks at some papers.

"Hm. Octoling? Where am I going next?"

"No clue. It says slice of life 2, but that's fizz's place, right?"

"Then I guess I'm going there. Well, not yet."

Octoling looks at him confused.

"Why?"

"If Sarah just died, I am going nowhere near fizz."

Octoling nods.

"Fair. But you need to go eventually."

"I will. But for now, how about we take a visit to colour blends?"

Octoling grins.

"Ooh, I love that place! C'mon, let's go!"

She grabs Hopper's arm and drags him to the portal machine.

-segmentline-

Fizz walks into John's room, who's holding his shoulder while looking over something.

"Hey. You ok?"

John sighs.

"Well, you may have had some closure, but Zoey's still missing. I can't stop looking."

Fizz nods.

"I understand. You and Karl and search around later."

"No, I want to leave now."

Fizz frowns and goes over to him.

"John, your shoulder isnt something you should just blow off. You need to take it easy for at least a couple of hours."

John bangs his hand on the table.

"I've waited long enough. She could be in danger, or she could be tortured, or-"

"John. Calm the fuck down, I'm sure she's fine. You said it wasn't octarians, right? That means they needed her for something."

John sighs and puts his head down.

"You might be right... But I still need to know if she's ok."

Fizz puts a hand on his shoulder.

"And you will. But not before you make sure YOU'RE ok. Killing yourself over this isn't gonna help anything."

John stands up and hugs fizz.

"I'm glad I know someone like you. Even during your own struggles, you put that aside to help me."

"My struggles are over. At least for the moment. Zoey is one of my best friends, and I'm not just gonna sit by either. You guys search, I'll see if I can find anything out."

John nods and lays down.

"I'm gonna get some sleep."

Fizz nods.

"I get it. It's been a while since I slept too."

"You should fix that. Get some sleep man, you deserve it."

He turns over, and fizz walks back to the couch in the living room.

He hears a knock shortly after.

"Marina. What's up?"

"Hey, I wanted to talk to you. About pearl."

Fizz nods and moves back to the couch.

"Did you guys see the body?"

"Yeah, what the hell happened in there?"

Fizz leans back and chuckles.

"We had a fight, he ended up shooting John, I took the gun from him, and then I kicked him down the stairs."

Marina shakes her head.

"Fizz, did you really need to do that?"

Fizz nods.

"Yes marina. I did. I know you don't know how it feels, but losing Sarah, and knowing it was him? It was... Infuriating. I had to show him what he had done to me."

Marina takes fizz into a hug.

"I know how it feels. Believe me. Maybe not as much, but still."

Fizz sighs and pats her back.

"Who?"

Marina pulls away and looks down.

"My brother. I know exactly who did it."

"Did you ever do something about it?"

"I tried to get him arrested, but... Lack of evidence."

"That sounds familiar. Only I was on the other side..."

Marina looks at him.

"You killed someone? Aside from... You know."

"Yeah. Three years ago. Lack of evidence saved me. Only I killed a girl who was insulting Zoey."

"Wow... You're pretty violent."

Fizz laughs.

"Yeah. I guess so. Dont let it get to you though, it's just how I am."

Marina nods.

"So, about pearl... I was planning to ask her today."

"Well, go for it. No time like the present."

Marina shrugs.

"I mean, I guess, but I tripped on the stairs at the tower, and she got really worried..."

"What does that have to do with anything? If anything it proves she cares about you."

"I just... What if she doesn't like me? Then everything will be weird..."

Fizz turns marina to look at him.

"Marina, believe when I say holding this in is gonna kill you. You never know unless you try, and better to try now then..."

He pauses and takes a breath.

"Then when it's too late. Do it now, before you lose her somehow."

Marina looks at Fizz, before slowly nodding.

"You're right. I need to do this. I-ill see you later."

She stands up and waves before walking out.

Fizz sighs.

"At least someone can be happy. Even if no one else can."


	6. Oh no that's not goooooood

( Here's where things get a bit more familiar. Slightly. Man, these guys just can't catch a break can they? Also, they seem to keep getting sidetracked when they start looking for Zoey. Hmm. Anyway, not much to say this time, so let's go! *Obnoxiously loud train whistle*)

-chapterstart-

"So when's bubda coming over?"

Anthony shrugs.

"I don't know. You want me to call him?"

Hayden bounces up and down before jumping on the couch.

"Yes! Yes! I wanna see my bubda!"

Anthony smiles and pulls out his phone, pressing the button for fizz.

"Yeah?"

"Your sister wants to see you."

Hayden jumps on to Anthony's head and looks at the phone.

"Bubda! I wanna show you my trick!"

"Alright, I can be over there soon."

"YAAAAAAY!"

Some chuckles are heard through the phone before he hangs up.

"Alright, bubda's gonna be here soon. How about we sing something else?"

Hayden jumps over to the stereo, and presses a button.

"I wanna sing the electro one!"

"H,B,F,S? Alright. Hit play."

Hayden hits the button, and the beat begins.

They sing together for a while, going through several songs before Arron walks out of his room.

"Nice singing you two, sounds nice."

"Sing with us Aaron!"

Arron smiles and sits next to Anthony.

"Alright, what's the song?"

"I think gospel of dismay is next."

"Oh yeah, I like that one."

Hayden hits play, and they begin singing. When the song is over Arron laughs.

"Reminds me of the time Sarah walked in that one time, remember?"

Anthony smiles.

"Yeah, we sounded amazing. Under such interesting circumstances too."

Hayden jumps.

"What are you talking about? What curcim- circim- whatever, are you talking about?"

Arron and Anthony giggle.

"You'll figure it out eventually. But all you need to know now is that Sarah was intruding on something private."

Arron nods.

"Glad she did though. That was amazing."

Hayden groans and hits the play button again.

They finish up that song, and fizz walks in.

"BUBDA!"

Hayden jumps into fizz's face.

"MMMMF!"

Fizz stumbles around for a moment, before balancing himself and pulling Hayden off of him.

"Hayden, don't do that. Your gonna get yourself hurt."

Hayden slumps over.

"Sorry..."

Fizz pets her head and sets her down.

"It's ok, just don't do that again. Now what's this trick you wanted to show me?

Hayden perks up and jumps down.

"Watch this!"

She does her flip, and fizz claps.

"That's good Hayden, maybe you can be a professional gymnast when you grow up!"

Hayden jumps up and down.

"No! I wanna be the best turf war player ever! Like you!"

Fizz laughs.

"Kid, I am nowhere near the best turf war player. I may have won a few battles, but those aren't the pro leagues."

Anthony shrugs.

"The prizes might as well be. You're pretty much set for life now, aren't you?"

Fizz nods.

"Got enough credits to buy like 15 mansions. So do you guys."

Arron shakes his head.

"Nah, I prefer to be as close to my husband as possible. If the kitchen is across the house from the bedroom, how will I tackle him when I get up after him?"

Hayden flops down.

"I still wanna be good... Maybe I'll get into the pro leagues!"

Fizz nods.

"Keep practicing when you get older, it helps."

Hayden nods and looks around.

"Wait, where's sawah? She's usually with you..."

Fizz looks at Anthony, who shakes his head.

"Sarah's... On a vacation. For awhile."

"Oh... I wanted to see her..."

Fizz bends down.

"And you will, just... Not for a while."

Hayden nods and hugs fizz.

"At least I got to see you! I missed you!"

Fizz smiles and stands up.

"I should be going. I need to be back before John wakes up."

Arron nods and goes to pick up Hayden.

"I'll see you tomorrow Hayden."

Fizz walks out.

"I wanna go to bubda's."

Anthony shakes his head.

"Maybe tomorrow. But not now, he's got a guest over."

Hayden sighs.

-segmentline-

"You don't ever lose you touch, do you Rece?"

Rece shrugs and pulls Aurie closer.

"I never knew I had a 'touch'. It's not like I've done this before."

"Could've fooled me, you're the best one I've ever been with."

Rece smiles.

"I'm glad Karl recommended this place. I didn't expect to get a girlfriend out of it."

"You know, I always thought the same about fizz and Sarah. If Anthony wasn't there, I'm not sure they would've gotten together."

Rece sits up.

"I feel bad for him. Sarah and him were so perfect together..."

Aurie sits up as well, with the blanket falling down.

Rece stares.

"Not so shy now, are you?"

Rece smirks.

"A little bit past that, aren't we?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

Aurie pulls rece into a kiss, keeping him in it for a while.

Rece pulls away sighs.

"It's nice to actually have someone to talk to. Everyone always seems so... Off."

Aurie frowns.

"Really? Even your brother?"

Rece nods.

"He's... Violent, to say the least. I know he would never hurt me, but he still scares me quite a bit."

Aurie shrugs.

"I guess. He never struck me as violent."

"You never got close enough to see that I suppose."

Aurie nods.

"I did get close enough to fuck him though."

Rece looks at Aurie suprised.

"You fucked him? When?"

"Little after Sarah and him got together. We had a threesome."

Rece blinks.

"Woah."

Aurie smiles.

"Yeah. He's pretty good too."

Rece pushes her a bit.

"Eww! Don't talk about my bro like that!"

Aurie giggles and pushes him back.

Rece lies back down and sighs.

"I'm glad I met you. Really."

Aurie puts herself down a bit and pulls Rece's head up to kiss him.

Rece's phone buzzes, and he pulls away to look at it, while Aurie groans.

"Rece, I need your help looking for Zoey. Do you have some time to come over?"

Aurie looks over.

"Your bro asking for a favor?"

Rece nods.

"Yeah. Zoey went missing, and I guess John actually told them."

Aurie sits up.

"Well then get going! Don't want to leave your friends hanging, right?"

Rece nods and gets out of the bed, grabbing his clothes off the floor.

"I'll be back later. See ya."

He waves and leaves.

Aurie streches out and yawns.

"I'm gonna get some food. I'm fucking starving.

-segmentline-

"Marina pushes open the door to the studio.

"Ah, marina! I started that song we talked about! I don't think I'm doing very good though."

Marina sighs and turns pearl torwards her.

"Marina...?"

"Pearl, I love you. I've loved you for so long now, and I needed to tell you before I lost my mind over it."

Pearl blinks and sighs in relief.

"Oh, that's good. Because I've been having the same problem."

Marina smiles.

"Figures. We should've talked sooner."

Pearl shrugs.

"All that matters is that we talked now."

Marina nods.

"So... Should we get to the song?"

Pearl giggles and gives marina a quick kiss.

"Yeah, come on. I'm having trouble syncing the brass.

Marina smiles and walks over to the table.

"So I've got the trumpets and the trombones tuned, but the tubas keep going too low."

Marina messes with a dial and flips a switch.

"Mm...try now."

Pearl presses play.

They both nod, and start messing with the table.

"Some heavy electro stuff here..."

"The brass should have quick strikes. Keep it light."

They keep messing with stuff and pearl walks over to a microphone.

"I was thinking something like this."

She sings a bit, with marina tuning the music to her.

"That sounds good, but where would I fit in?"

"Maybe you could sing just notes in the background, without lyrics?"

"...That might work."

Pearl nods and moves back to the table.

"Here, you go over. I'll try and sing with you."

Marina walks over, and pearl starts the track.

They stop after a moment.

"Alright, no. We need some sort of buffer."

Marina nods.

"Maybe we can use the brass? Some short strikes would be perfect."

Pearl smiles and messes with the table some.

"Alright... How about now?"

The track starts again, and they stop after around a minute.

"Now that sounds good. Now we just need to do the rest of it."

Marina nods.

"As long as I'm spending time with you."

Pearl smirks.

"Oh, so you're a romantic now? Alright."

-segmentline-

Karl walks into fizz's apartment.

"Hey fizz. Is John ready?"

Fizz nods and stands up.

"He's getting some stuff together."

Karl goes and sits down next to Fizz.

"So, what are you gonna do?"

"Me and Rece are gonna look around online, see if we can find any traces of this group that took Zoey."

John walks out into the living room, with a bag over his shoulder.

"Alright Karl, let's get going. I wanna check around octo valley."

Karl stands up, and nods.

"Alright, we should get moving if we're gonna get to the plaza by tonight."

Rece walks in, and goes over to the couch.

"Hey Rece. You ready?"

"Yeah..."

John and Karl walk out, and Rece and Fizz open up their laptops.

"So we're looking for an isopod, and some sort of jellyfish. Maybe we can find something about them somewhere."

Rece nods and starts typing stuff up.

"So, living with Aurie, huh? Has she fucked you yet?"

Rece blushes and brushes his tentacles aside.

"I'll take that as a yes, then?"

Rece nods.

Fizz laughs.

"Yeah, she's a real character all right. Her voice is... Well, it's gonna get her in your bed."

"She's nice... Despite all of that..."

"Of course she is. She a great person to know."

Rece points to his screen.

"I think I got something..."

"Isopod sightings around square- what could they mean?"

Fizz shrugs.

"Maybe. But that could be anything. Keep looking."

They type in silence for a bit.

"How are you doing...?"

"What do you mean?"

"Sarah..."

Fizz sighs and rubs his forehead.

"Horrible. I feel like a piece of me is missing, and it can never be filled. But with Marshall dead, at least I have some closure."

Rece sighs.

"I'm sorry. I can't even imagine what that feels like."

Fizz turns and looks at Rece.

"You didn't fall off the sentences."

Rece shrugs.

"So? Maybe I don't need to anymore."

Fizz frowns and looks down for a second before smiling.

"It's Aurie, isn't it?"

Rece smiles.

"She just... Understands, you know? I never had to explain why I fall off my sentences."

Fizz nods.

"I get it. When you started doing that, I knew exactly why. It just... Clicks, I guess."

Rece turns to fizz.

"Exactly. And... I need someone like that. She's perfect."

Fizz bumps him a bit and grins.

"When are you gonna confess? Or... No, you already have! You two are dating now, aren't you?"

Rece chuckles.

"Reading me like a book as always. Yeah."

Fizz sighs and leans back.

"That moment, when you first realize those feelings, is the best feeling in the world. I was tied to a fuckin bed when I first realized, but it still felt like I was the happiest I've ever been."

Fizz frowns and sits back up.

"Keep that feeling close. You never know when it will be ripped away."

Rece looks at fizz for a moment before turning back to his computer.

"What was she like?"

Fizz turns to him.

"She was exactly how I wanted to be. She didn't give a damn about what anyone thought of what she did, or who she liked. She always kept her friend close, never letting them get hurt. But the best thing about her, the thing that always kept me happy..."

Fizz wipes some tears away and looks at Rece.

"Was her eyes. Those fucking eyes. The perfect shade of green with just the right amount of shine. I miss them. I miss her."

Fizz shakes his head and exhales.

"But there are more important things right now. Have you found anything?"

Rece frowns and slowly turns back to his computer.

"No. Oh, wait! Look!"

Rece points to a article on his screen.

"Isopod seen going down subway tunnel- what are they doing?"

Fizz grins.

"Well fuckin done, Rece. This is perfect."

He pulls out his phone and writes a text.

"Guys, we found an article about isopod sightings in the subway tunnels. Check the ones by the plaza, and we'll check the ones in the square tomorrow."

-segmentline-

John and Karl look around the plaza.

"She wasn't in any of the shops, and she sure as hell isn't in the tower, so... To octo valley!"

They walk over to the grate.

"Ladies first."

John punches Karl's arm and jumps in. Karl follows suite.

They arrive, and look around the valley.

"Alright, so you search over there, and I'll search... Over there."

Karl looks in both directions and shrugs.

"I have no idea what to look for. But alright."

He starts off, and John looks around.

"Fuck this place. The outskirts are where I belong."

He starts off, looking at everything.

"They better have not been agents for these octarian bastards. I'll fuckin kill em."

He hops down a ledge and looks around.

"Alright let's start-"

His phone buzzing catches his attention.

He reads the text and grins.

"Here we go. Now I just gotta go back and get Karl."

He turns back to the ledge and tries to pull himself up.

"Come ooooooooooon..."

He falls down.

"Damn it. I'm gonna have to find another way around."

He pulls out his phone and send a message to Karl.

"I can't get back to the entrance, I'm gonna try another way around."

He gets a text back a second later.

"Got it. I'll sit around for a bit I suppose."

John nods and puts his phone away.

"Alright, there should be another way around over that way."

"How unfortunate for you."

John swings around, and comes face to face with an octoling.

"You-but- please don't hurt me."

The octoling grabs John in a hug.

"Wait, what's going on here?"

"It's me, ya big dork."

The octoling takes off her goggles.

John's eyes go wide.

"SIS?!"

The octoling smiles and nods.

"Been a while bro. Where ya been?"

John sighs.

"In the outskirts. Having a child with an inkling."

The octoling doesn't do anything for a moment, before slapping John.

John grabs his cheek and smirks.

"What? She was hot!"

She slaps him again.

"John, you fucking idiot! You'll never be able to come back!"

John shrugs.

"My wife and child were both kidnapped. I don't care about coming back, they are all I need. Did the octarian army kidnap them?"

The octoling shakes her head.

"No. We're focusing on Octavio's return."

"He's back? Wow, that's interesting."

"Yeah. We're almost ready. But if you want to get back to the entrance to the valley, I'll help you."

John smiles.

"Thanks, Nina. I'll... Well, I won't see you, but it was nice seeing you."

Nina helps John up the ledge, and waves to him before walking off.

He gets back to Karl eventually.

"Hey. Let's get going, we gotta get to that subway."

Karl nods and they go back through the grate.

"Thanks for coming with me by the way."

"She's my sister. I want to find her just as much as you."

"Yeah, I know. But still."

Karl kicks the door to the subway.

"It's locked. Should we break it?"

John pushes Karl aside and cracks his knuckles.

"Little tip, wanna open a door like this?"

He puts his hand just above the handle and puts his other hand on the handle, before kicking the door.

The door flies open.

"You gotta know where to push."

Karl blinks and gestures down the train car.

"After you, I guess."

John nods and walks down the hallway, grabbing a flashlight out of his bag.

"We dunno what we're gonna find down here, so be aware."

Karl pulls out his own flashlight and nods.

"Why'd the discontinue the subway to begin with? Even with the plaza closed, people still live over here..."

Karl shrugs.

"No idea. Maybe they figured no one would use this station."

They continue down the hallway, before they enter the next car.

"What the fuck...?"

John points his flashlight at what looks like capsules.

"What is this stuff?"

Karl goes over and presses a button on a panel, and it lights up the car.

The car is full of science equipment, and various capsules.

"What the hell were they doing down here?"

John taps the glass and backs up a bit.

"What do you think was in these?"

"No idea. Test subjects maybe?"

"Well, whatever was happening here is obviously over, so we should try the square's train."

Karl nods and grabs some papers off a table.

"Yeah, let's get going. Let fizz and Rece know we're leaving."

John pulls his phone out and types a message, while Karl starts his walk out.

"I'm going home. See you tomorrow, John."

John puts his phone away, and catches up to Karl.

"We're close, I can feel it."

Karl looks at the papers in his hand.

"Results of test, inkling duplication impossible- moving on to other options?"

John frowns.

"Inkling duplication? That doesn't sound good."

"Yeah. We better show these to Fizz."

-segmentline-

Callie grabs her cup and sits on the couch.

"I hope Karl gets back soon... He's been gone for a while..."

She takes a sip of the water and turns the TV on.

"Now."

Callie swings around torwards the voice, and an octoling jumps on her.

"HEY! GET OFF OF ME!"

"Subject captured, reporting back to base for further orders."

Two other octolings move out from behind the couch.

"Wow, that easy, huh? I expected more."

Callie headbutts the octoling holding her down, causing her to lift up one of her hands to hold her head.

Callie punches the octoling with her now free hand, and jumps up.

"You stay away from me. I'm not leaving this house unless it's in a damn bodybag!"

The octolings look at each other, before one pulls out a gun.

"I don't have to negotiate with you. You better come with us."

Callie keeps her stance.

The octoling who was beat up moves torwards Callie.

"Hey, hey! Stay back!"

Callie picks up the cup she was using and splashes the drink onto the octoling, who backs up.

The octoling with the gun growls.

"Final warning. Comply or die."

Callie throws the cup at the gun, which gets knocked out of the octoling's hand.

Callie jumps over her table and tackles the octoling, who bent down to grab the gun.

The other two octolings jump on Callie, and they struggle for a while, untill the octoling comes back up with the gun.

"I didn't want to have to do this, but I have no choice."

She shoots the gun, hitting Callie's foot.

"AAAAAAAH!"

Callie grabs her foot, which already has ink pouring out of it.

The octoling with the gun motions to her associates, and they pick Callie up.

"You're coming with us. Octavio has plans for you."

Callie spits in the octoling's face.

The octoling wipes it off and slams the gun's handle into Callie's face.

"Keep testing me you inkling fuck. I can go all day."

Callie coughs, and groans.

"Fuck you. I'll never help you."

The octoling laughs.

"We'll see about that."


	7. This looks familiar

( Story mode? More like snory mode. I'm joking. Mostly. I spent the time getting all the hero replicas, so I just kinda know all the levels front to back. But anyway, this is the part where the story mode starts to interweove itself with the already existing plot. Will it stay that way for long? Hell no. But it makes for a good mid point. )

-chapterstart-

Joel leans back in his couch and sighs.

"I need to figure out why the internet is all screwy."

He closes his laptop and gets up, heading to his door.

"I'll ask fizz. Maybe he knows why the internet's all screwy."

He pushes his door open and hears someone cry out in pain.

He runs out and turns, and he sees Karl with a hand on his face with John looking over him.

"Oh, I am so sorry!"

Karl groans and stands up.

"Not a problem... You had no way of knowing..."

John looks at Joel.

"Who are you exactly?"

"I'm Joel. I live next to fizz."

John shrugs.

"Whatever. I'll see you tomorrow, Karl."

Karl nods and turns around, before walking to the elevator.

Joel pulls out his laptop.

"Do you know why the internet's been weird? I can't get any service..."

John looks at the computer for before laughing.

"You forgot to change your WiFi, idiot."

Joel faceplams and shakes his head.

"I'm so dumb. Sorry. Say hi to Fizz for me."

John nods and walks into the other door.

Joel looks at his laptop again.

"How did I not see that?!"

-segmentline-

Aulbrey slams the hammer onto the ground.

"Fuckin thing! It's a good thing I got the extra time to work on this..."

Zack walks up and hands her a box.

"Got the fuse. Thankfully there were no problems this time."

"What, your broken leg isn't a problem? You need to stop pushing yourself so hard."

Zack sits down and sighs.

"I'm fine. I can handle a broken leg, it's this plan that needs to be finished."

"We have all the time in the world now. Besides, you need to keep off of that foot."

"Fine. Do you have everything you need at least?"

Aulbrey looks over all of her stuff before nodding.

"Good. I'll go lay down. But if you need anything, let me know."

He gets up and limps over to his bed.

Aulbrey picks up the hammer and sighs.

"He better not get himself killed..."

-segmentline-

Karl opens his door and throws his bag to the side.

"Callie? I'm back. Sorry I was gone for so long."

He walks into the kitchen and looks around.

"Callie? Where are you?"

He checks every room, before coming back and sitting on the couch.

"She's... She's probably just out. It's fine... It's fine."

He takes a few deep breaths.

He feels his foot hit something.

"What... Is this a cup?"

He picks up the cup and looks at it.

"Why is this cup here? I guess that explains the wet spot on the floor..."

He gets up and goes over to the wet spot.

"Did Callie drop the drink? Or..."

He moves the couch back a bit, revealing the pink ink staining the floor.

"Oh no. Oh no no no no no."

He presses his fingers on the ink spot.

"Still wet. This happened recently."

He rubs the ink off of his hand and starts breathing heavily.

"THIS IS ALL MY FAULT!"

He throws the cup across the room, and punches the couch and floor.

"I COULD'VE BEEN HERE! I COULD'VE STOPPED IT!"

He gets up and kicks the table, before screaming in pain and falling backwards.

He flails around some more before collapsing into sobbing.

"Why?! Why me?!"

He rolls over and pulls out his phone.

"I'm not letting this slide. I'm making this known!"

He types a message and puts his phone down.

"I'm just gonna lay here... For a while..."

He passes out.

-segmentline-

Pearl shakes her head.

"No, that's not gonna work. Let's just work on this tomorrow."

Marina nods.

"Yeah, I'm tired. Let's get some sleep."

Pearl's phone buzzes and she looks at it.

"Oh you've gotta be fucking kidding."

Marina runs over and looks at the phone.

"Callie, kidnapped?! No!"

Pearl nods and puts her phone away.

"Let's get this on the news tomorrow. Everyone should know about this."

Marina nods.

"Yeah. Let's hope we can find someone to help."

-segmentline-

The next day went like you would expect.

"This just in, the great zapfish is missing!"

Or, as I would expect, because I know the story.

"Oh, superstar Callie is also missing!"

Someone who doesn't know the story would be confused.

"When I saw you mindlessly wandering around the plaza, I knew you were the one."

Of course, I'm taking some liberties.

"You've never heard of me? For eel?"

Joel's agent 4, if you couldn't guess.

"The octarian menace must be stopped!"

Really, the point of this scene is that I was too lazy to write the whole damn dialogue. Sorry.

"The first grate is over there."

Marie points over to a small area behind her.

Joel nods and runs off.

Marie sighs and sits down.

"Guess it was my turn to lose something."

Marie looks up.

"First was way back when Arron and Anthony lost each other... Then fizz lost Sarah... John and Karl lost Zoey... And now..."

She groans and slams her face into her hands.

"Damn it Callie... Why does this keep happening?!"

Fizz comes up through the grate and walks torwards Marie.

"Are you ok, Marie?"

Marie shakes her head.

"No I'm not fucking ok, my cousin was kidnapped and two of my friends are flipping their shit because of it."

Fizz nods.

"Yeah... I guess your right. Karl is kinda going off the deep end. And John is holding it together, but..."

Marie grabs fizz and pulls him into a hug.

"Just shut up, alright?"

Fizz sighs and returns the hug.

"I'm here for you. Don't forget that."

Marie starts softly sobbing.

-segmentline-

Karl slams his head onto his table.

"FUCK EVERYTHING!"

He slams his hand into the table enough times that small cracks start to show.

"FUCK THIS STUPID TABLE! I TOLD CALLIE THIS TABLE WAS TERRIBLE!"

He slams his head into it again.

"I'VE ALWAYS WANTED TO GET RID OF THIS TABLE, BUT NOOOOO, CALLIE WOULDN'T LET ME! SHE SAID It tied the room together... And... And..."

He puts his head down on the table.

"I can't deal with this. How did fizz ever get past this?!"

He gets up and walks into the kitchen, grabbing the bottle of whiskey that he's been drinking out of.

"I have to focus. They'll find her. Them both."

He takes large drink of the bottle.

"Urg... That fuckin sucks."

He slams the bottle back back down and sinks onto the floor.

"First Zoey, now Callie?! What the fuck?!"

He bangs his hand on the cabinet next to him.

"And I can't even help. I have to wait and hope that everything turns out ok!"

He yells out in anger.

"DAMN IT! FUCK!"

-segmentline-

Anthony sighs and puts his head down on the table.

"What's wrong, Antony?"

Arron pulls Anthony up and hugs him.

"Callie's missing. Anthony's just worried."

Hayden jumps on the table and flops over.

"It's gonna be ok Antony, I'm sure someone will find her!"

Anthony smiles and nods.

"Yeah. Gotta keep the hope up, right?"

Hayden bounces a bit and jumps down.

She walks off, humming some random tune.

Arron gives Anthony a kiss and gets up.

"I know this is bad, but at least we're still together. We are fine."

Anthony nods.

"Yeah. Yeah. But everyone else..."

Arron sighs.

"Karl And John are off the deep end, Marie and fizz and so on edge I'm fairly certain they've cut themselves serveral times, but me and you?"

He gestures around the room.

"We are fine. Nothing's wrong with us."

Anthony smiles and stands up.

"Why are you so good at this stuff?"

Arron shrugs.

"Talent. I know you don't have any, but try and keep up."

Anthony smirks and wraps Arron in a hug.

"I have talent in persuading you. After all..."

Arron shushes him.

"Not with the kid around."

Anthony frowns.

"It's always something with you, huh?"

Arron rolls his eyes and kisses Anthony again.

"Ewww!"

They both pull away and looks at Hayden, who's curled up on the floor.

"That's gross!"

Anthony laughs.

"Yeah, well, that's how you show love."

Hayden jumps up and sticks her tounge out.

"It's gross. I'm never gonna do that!"

Anthony and Arron burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?!"

Arron picks Hayden up.

"You are just the cutest thing ever is all."

Hayden smiles and snuggles into Arron's arms

"I know."

-segmentline-

Joel walks back into the hub, and turns torwards Marie and fizz.

"I'm making good progress. I'm about to go for one of the octoweapons."

Marie nods.

"Just be ready. Those things are no cakewalk."

Joel shrugs.

"The first one is never too bad. I'll be fine."

He walks off, and Marie turns back to Fizz.

"So what's with the outfit?"

Marie sets her umbrella down and stretches.

"It's to keep people from recognising me in the square. Kimonos aren't exactly forward fashion after all."

"I think it looks nice."

Marie straightens her kimono a bit and shrugs.

"I guess. I used to wear these a ton as a kid, but I guess I kinda grew out of them."

Fizz stands up.

"A shame. Anyway, I need to get back to John. He's been... Out of it."

Marie sighs.

"Can't you stay here a little longer? I'm forced to set up camp here so no octarians get through to the square, and it's BOOOOOORING."

Fizz shakes his head.

"No, John's been saying how he dragged Karl along, and therefore it's his fault Callie's gone. I need to keep him in check. Sorry."

He turns and jumps through the grate.

Marie groans.

"Yay, more boredom..."

-segmentline-

John turns the channel again.

"Keep it together. They will find her. Both of them."

He holds the remote tighter.

"Sure, it might've been my fault, but it's fine, because they'll find them."

He squeezes the remote tightly.

"But what if they never find them? What if Karl never gets over this because I dragged him along on my stupid search?"

He starts breathing quickly.

"What if everyone hates me forever?! What if I never see Jamie and Zoey aga-"

The remote snaps in two, and John stares at the pieces.

"Alright, alright... I'm good. I'm good."

He scoops up the pieces and throws them in the trash.

"I need to calm down. This isnt helping anything."

He hears the door open.

"Hey, John. I'm back."

John walks back out to see fizz putting his jacket back on the coat rack.

"How's Marie doing, fizz?"

"She's just bored. Her grandfather told her to monitor the grate, before he just up and left."

John frowns.

"Figures. I take it you're gonna visit her then?"

"I have to keep an eye on you too, don't think I don't see the pieces of the remote down there."

John sighs.

"I know it was my fault-"

"No, it wasn't. You couldn't have known this would've happened, so stop saying it was your fault."

John shrugs.

"You can say it, but that doesn't mean I'll believe it."

Fizz groans and turns the TV off.

"You're paying for that remote."

John shrugs.

"Yeah, I don't have any money."

"I hate you."

John chuckles.

"Sure ya do. That's why you blew off Marie to come and check on me."

"Yeah, you're right. I despise you."

John elbows fizz.

"Shut up. You'll see her tomorrow."

Fizz rolls his eyes.

"I'm staying much longer this time, so you better not break anything else."

John nods.

"I'll be fine."

Fizz sighs.

"If you say so..."

-segmentline-

Zodiac slams the front door shut.

"AURIE! WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT HITTING ON THE BANK CLERK!"

"That he was cute and I should keep doing it? Or was that what I said..."

Joey laughs from the kitchen.

"Zodiac, did you really think she would stop? This is Aurie we're talking about here."

Zodiac puts the grocery bags on the counter and shrugs.

"I keep saying to myself: maybe she'll change one day! I'm starting to doubt that. Heavily."

Aurie grabs one of the bag and winks at zodiac.

"Why would I change? Everyone seems to enjoy it just fine."

Joey smirks and nods.

"It certainly is enjoyable. It also keeps team morale high."

Zodiac grins.

"Never seen anyone unhappy under this roof, that's for sure."

Rece walks in.

"Hey guys."

Joey and zodiac turn and stare.

"You-"

"I can speak fine, yes, now can we have lunch now?"

Aurie nods and pulls out some ingredients.

"Who's up for Tacos?"

Everyone else says something along the lines of yes.

Joey pushes zodiac and Rece out of the room.

"We got this. You guys just hang around for a bit."

Zodiac shrugs and walks to the living room.

"So Rece, how was your first time with Aurie?"

Rece follows him and chuckles.

"Amazing. I've never felt so good."

Zodiac nods.

"Yeah, Most people feel the same way."

He sits down on the couch, and Rece sits next to him.

"By the way, the three of us are heading out for some turf war today, wanna join us?"

Rece shakes his head.

"Nah. I'm just gonna sit around today."

Zodiac shrugs.

"Alright, but if you ever want to come along, just ask."

"Maybe sometime. But not today."

Zodiac grabs a cup off the table.

"Suite yourself. You'll just be by yourself here for a few hours anyway."

"Not a big deal. I'm used to being on my own."

Zodiac takes a drink out of the cup and spitakes.

"Ewewewewew."

They hear Aurie giggles from the kitchen.

"Who drank it? C'mon, you like lapping it up any other time~"

Zodiac gags.

"Why would you leave a cup of your own cum on the table?! That's disgusting!"

"I knew one of you would drink it, that's why. I thought it would be funny!"

Zodiac gets up and storms into the kitchen.

Rece hears Joey burst out laughing, before zodiac yells at Aurie some more.

He hears the distinct ring of a frying pan.

"Almost feels like College."

Aurie comes out into the living room and sits next to Rece.

"Sorry about him, he never finds anything I do funny."

"Well, that was kinda... Odd. It was pretty funny though."

Aurie smiles and leans on Rece.

"At least someone appreciates my sense of humor. Yet another thing about you like!"

Rece grabs the cup and looks in it.

"When did you have the time to do this? This thing is almost half full..."

"I usually masturbate 6 times during the night. It's why I take naps so much."

"So, on top of having sex at least 4 times yesterday, you masturbated 6 times?!"

Aurie nods.

"Even other octolings call me a sex hungry monster."

Joey walks in.

"Works well for the rest of us. I've never felt more relaxed."

Aurie stands up and licks her lips.

"Speaking of which, it's your turn."

Joey shrugs.

"Alright. But can it wait until after lunch?"

Aurie shakes her head.

"Figures. Alright, c'mon."

Joey and Aurie walk off, and Rece walks into the kitchen.

Zodiac is on the floor, mumbling nonsense.

"Come on zodiac, it's not the first time you've been hit with a pan."

"Why does it hurt more Everytime?"

Rece helps zodiac up, and they grab a few of the tacos.

"Joey's taking care of Aurie, right?"

Rece nods and sits down.

"Nice. That means it's my turn next."

Rece chuckles.

"You guys got a whole system going on, dont you?"

"Yeah. When Aurie doesn't find someone to take home, she goes for one of us instead."

Rece smiles.

"I'm on that list now, aren't I?"

"You don't have to be, but you are living here. Plus, Aurie seems to like you."

"I don't mind. Then again, who would?"

Zodiac laughs.

"Yeah, you're right about that. I'm so glad Aurie came around when she did."

"What do you mean?"

Zodiac frowns.

"Well, she first met us after panda died. We called her to try and make a new turf war team. She was... Upset about panda, and needed a distraction, so she practically forced me and Joey to come with her back to her house."

Rece nods.

"Sounds about right."

"Anyway, she invited us for turf wars soon after that, and we eventually became a professional team. So now we all live together. Enjoying everything that comes with it."

Zodiac gets up and puts his plate in the sink.

"It's nice to have you here Rece. Aurie likes having you around, and I can appreciate that."

Rece smiles and puts his plate in the sink as well.

"Thanks. I feel welcome here."

-segmentline-

Fizz pops up through the grate.

"Ah, fizz. Thank you for coming, I was just counting every nail in this shack for the eighth time."

Fizz rolls his eyes and walks over to Marie.

"You could've brought a TV or something you know."

"When do you think I would've had the time for that? I'm just lucky I was able to bring as much stuff as I did."

She stands up and goes into the shack.

"I made some crabby cakes, you want any?"

Fizz walks over and sits down.

"Sure. I didn't eat a big breakfast anyways."

Marie comes back out and tosses a cake to Fizz, who catches it and takes a bite.

"Mm. These are good."

"Old family recipe. You just gotta season them properly."

Fizz eats the rest of it.

"Well, whatever you do, it tastes amazing. Thanks."

Marie takes a tray of them to Fizz.

"I made a ton of them. I'm sure you can guess why."

Fizz takes another one and shrugs.

"You're keeping yourself busy, I get it. If I was stuck here, I'd be doing anything to keep me entertained."

Marie groans.

"You got that right. It's so boring here I actually thought about building another shack, just to keep me busy."

"Oof. Well, hopefully it won't be too long before Joel rescues Callie."

"It's gonna take days, at least. The octarian army won't just let him walk through."

"How's he doing so far?"

"Halfway through the second sector. He's getting there."

Marie takes the now empty tray back to the shack.

"I'm glad you agreed to visit me. I never could handle being alone..."

Fizz frowns.

"You've been alone for a while, right? Callie moved in with Karl..."

"Exactly."

Marie walks back out.

"I hate being the only one living in that apartment. It's so quiet."

She slumps down a bit.

Fizz sighs.

"I get what you mean. Until Sarah came along, I loved living alone. But... I hate the quiet. It really messes with you."

"At least you have John. I'm all by myself."

Fizz thinks for a moment.

"You know, one of us could move in with the other."

Marie sits up.

"Yeah. Yeah! That sounds great! But... Which one of us moves?"

"Me, I guess. John can have the place when he finds Zoey, if he wants."

Marie nods.

"Alright. Thanks for this. Really."

"No need to thank me, I'm helping myself here too."

"Yeah, but... Nevermind. You can move your stuff in whenever you feel like."

Fizz nods and leans back.

"So, what do you want to do?"

Marie shrugs.

"I dunno. There really is nothing to do."

They turn and look at each other.

Fizz clears his throat.

"Um, maybe not."

Marie nods.

"Yeah, no."

They look at various things for a while, before Marie jumps on fizz.

"Actually, yeah. I need this."

Fizz sighs.

"Yeah... Me too."

-segmentline-

Hayden jumps around the room.

"I'm gonna jump higher then anyone!"

Anthony swipes his hands around, trying to catch her.

"No, stop, get down, AUGH."

Arron laughs and takes a sip of his drink.

"Maybe you should try using a net or something."

"Or, you know, YOU COULD HELP ME!"

Arron shrugs.

"You seem to be doing fine to me."

Hayden slams into Anthony's head, and lands in his hands.

Yay! You caught me!"

Anthony rubs his head and sets Hayden down with Arron.

"Hayden, stop. Please."

"Oh... Ok..."

Arron pets Hayden's head.

"You know, maybe we could go out for a bit. We haven't really done anything aside from hang around."

Hayden bounces a bit and cheers.

Anthony nods.

"Yeah. But where should we go?"

"We can go spectate some turf war games, if you want."

"Yes! Yes! I want!"

"Alright, alright. Come on, we might catch Aurie and her team today."

Anthony grabs a bag of the table.

"Yeah, let's go."

Arron stands up and puts Hayden on his head.

"Here we go. Stay on my head Hayden."

They walk out, and walk down the stadium bleachers.

"NEXT UP: THE OCTOLADS VS THE FIRE UPS!"

"Ooh, nice. We're not too late."

They sit down, and Arron waves to aurie, who's standing off to the side. She sees it and walks over.

"Hey Arron. Have you finally gone straight?"

Arron rolls his eyes.

"Nice to see you too."

Aurie giggles and hugs him.

"I'm kidding. How are you guys by the way?"

Arron takes Hayden off his head and shrugs.

"Well, we've got this little cutie for a while, so..."

Aurie squeals and grabs Hayden.

"HAYDEN! IT'S BEEN SO LONG!"

Hayden giggles and snuggles with Aurie.

"Hi, auwie!"

"She's so cute I could die. Like seriously."

Anthony nods.

"When's your game starting by the way?"

Aurie blinks and hands Hayden back to Arron.

"Uh, in like a minute. Enjoy guys!"

She runs off, and Arron chuckles.

"Good to see someone's keeping it together."

"Well, she didn't know Callie very well anyway."

The starting bell rings, and the game begins.

It's a normal game for the most part, except for one bit.

"WOAH! IS THAT LEGAL?"

"YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!"

Anthony bursts out laughing.

"Flashing her tits as a distraction, fucking brilliant!"

Arron chuckles a bit while covering Hayden's eyes.

"Hey! What happened, let me see!"

The game ends in a victory for Aurie's team, and they walk over to Anthony and Arron.

"So, we heard Hayden was here?"

Anthony nods and stands up.

"Here, let's go to the square."

They all walk to the square, sitting down at a table.

"Here she is!"

Arron sets her on the table, and she looks around.

"Yay! Jooey and zadiac!"

Zodiac snickers.

"Can she say anyone's name right?"

Arron shakes his head.

"She's learning. She was calling me aaroon not too long ago."

Aurie puts her chin on the table and sticks her tounge out at Hayden, who returns it.

Joey smiles.

"How long do you guys have her for?"

"Couple more days. She leaves either tomorrow or The day after that."

Arron shrugs.

"Whenever her parents show up. Anyway, got anyone new around Aurie?"

Aurie nods.

"Rece. He's staying at my place until he gets his own."

"Really? Good for him. Have you fucked him yet?"

"You know it. No one comes in my house and leaves without getting fucked."

Anthony laughs.

"Classic Aurie. Do you ever slow down?"

"You wish. I've fucked these two around a hundred times each at this point."

Zodiac nods.

"I never get tired of it though."

Joey leans back.

"Same. Something about her is just... Perfect."

Aurie smirks and leans over.

"Are you saying that just because you had your turn today?"

Joey shrugs.

"Even if I was, it's still true."

Hayden yawns and swims over to Anthony.

"I'm tired... Can we go now?"

Anthony picks her up and sighs.

"Alright. See you guys later."

They all wave.

Anthony and Arron get up and leave.

Zodiac taps his foot.

"Should we get going? We have another match in five."

Aurie blinks.

"Oh, shit. Yeah. Let's go guys."


	8. Fade out before the time comes

( Short chapter this time, there's a reason for that as I'm sure you'll realize quite quickly. Here's where things pick up, as everything lines up and we begin to really get into the thick of it. See you tomorrow for some filler hehe )

-chapterstart-

Karl sighs.

"I need to fuckin do something. I've been laying here all day."

He rolls over a bit.

"At the same time... Maybe not."

He drinks some water from a cup on his nightstand.

"I can't help but feel like I've been here before..."

He groans.

"Everyone is goooooone... No reason to get uuuuuuuup..."

He exhales.

"Maybe I should go and see fizz... Yeah."

He flops out of bed and puts some clothes on.

"Alright. Walking to fizz's. Yeah."

He stumbles out the door, coughs, and starts walking.

-segmentline-

John is sitting upside down on the couch.

"I'm bored. Why is there never anything on anymore? It's all sitcoms and cooking shows..."

He sits up and huffs.

"Well, time to get something to eat, I guess."

He gets up and walks into the kitchen.

"Does fizz eat anything other than pizza and Mac and cheese? Ridiculous..."

He takes a box of Mac and cheese out of the cupboard and sets it on the counter.

"Alright, so-"

The front door flies open, and Karl stumbles in.

"FIZZ! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU, I WANNA THROW MY PROBLEMS ONTO YOU!"

John groans and steps into the living room.

"Karl, please don't do this."

Karl coughs and sits down on the couch.

"Oh, John. I forgot about you."

John rolls his eyes and goes over to Karl.

"Fizz isn't here. He's keeping Marie company outside of octo canyon."

"Oooooh... Well, that sucks."

John goes and gets some water out of the kitchen and gives it to Karl.

"Here. Now stay out of my way please."

"I think we both know I'm not going to do that."

John sighs and goes back into the kitchen.

"I'm making lunch. You want any Mac and cheese?"

"Sure... I didn't eat lunch, so..."

John grabs a second box out of the cupboard and pulls a pot out of another.

"This is gonna be a while. How's about you tell me why you thought coming over here was a good idea?"

Karl coughs some more.

"I figured I'd get someone else to help me, considering I'm kinda alone now."

"You're not alone, case in point, you came here for help from one of your friends."

"I guess... Also, don't go blaming yourself for this. It was not your fault."

John snorts.

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before. Fizz told me the same thing."

"Well, he's right."

Karl coughs some more and wipes his forehead.

"Hah... I'm not feeling so good."

John peeks at him from the kitchen.

"You... Don't look good either. Here, let me get the thermometer."

He opens every cabinet until he finds it.

"Here."

Karl takes it and John walks back into the kitchen.

"You might have a fever, it's not a big deal."

He checks the water, and goes back to Karl.

"Alright let's see..."

He takes the thermometer back and looks at it.

"Yep. 100. You need some rest, all this stress must be getting to you."

John lays Karl down on the couch.

"Lay here for a bit."

Karl coughs some more.

"Ugh... Hurts..."

John frowns.

"Hurts?"

Karl coughs again, with ink coming with it.

John backs up.

"Oh, oh no. Not good not good not good."

He sprints into the kitchen and turns off the stove, before grabbing Karl and going out the door.

"If this means what I think it means, we're in trouble. Big trouble."

-segmentline-

Marie sighs.

"You have no idea how much I needed that."

Fizz hums in agreement.

"Yeah..."

Marie rolls over so she's looking at fizz.

"You should come back tomorrow, of you want to do this again."

Fizz chuckles.

"I will. All the stress every since the concert has been eating me alive, I need this."

Marie smiles.

"I'm glad. Besides, I've been waiting to have sex with you for soooooo long."

Fizz smirks.

"You know, I think I'm gonna take that fresh start you promised."

Marie sits up.

"You mean...?"

"Yep. I'll date you."

Marie wraps Fizz in a hug.

"You have no idea how much this means to me. Thank you."

Fizz nods.

"Let's keep it quiet though, please? I still haven't really gotten over Sarah..."

Marie frowns.

"I don't want to force you into this, if you haven't gotten over Sarah, don't rush over to me."

Fizz sighs.

"I won't ever get over Sarah unless I move on. What better way to move on then to find someone else?"

"I guess... I won't tell anyone if that's what you want."

Fizz nods.

"Thank you. It'll be just like old times."

Marie flinches.

"Uh, maybe not like that."

Fizz blinks.

"Mmmmforgot. Yes, not like that."

He gets out of the bed and puts his clothes back on.

"I'm gonna go check on John. See you tomorrow!"

He walks off, and Marie stretches.

"Mmm. I have something to look forward to. Yes!"

-segmentline-

John barges through the hospital doors.

"I NEED A DOCTOR, NOW!"

The doctor runs into the lobby.

"What's wrong!? Oh, it's Karl. Alright, bring him in!"

John follows the doctor down the hall.

"Set him here!"

John sets down Karl on the bed and exhales.

"Holy fuck he's heavy. Now, I need you to listen to me carefully."

The doctor nods.

"From what I've seen, I think he's been poisoned."

The doctor frowns.

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I have a sister in the army, and she used the same poison. When the octolings were trying to take Callie they might've poisoned a glass of water, or some other liquid or something."

The doctor groans.

"Is it treatable?!"

John puts his head down.

"As far as I know... No. It's fatal in every instance I've seen of it."

The doctor puts his hand on his forehead.

"So we're just supposed to watch him die?"

John rolls his eyes.

"No, we should obviously find some way to at least treat it."

The doctor throws his hands up.

"How?! Unless you've got an entire study on this poison, I have no idea where to start!"

John shrugs.

"I don't know either. I'll try and see if I can figure out how much poison he actually took."

The doctor nods.

"I'll see if I can find where the poison is at, maybe I can transfuse the ink and get it out of him."

John nods.

"Good call. I need to tell the others about this."

The doctor nods, and John runs out of the room.

-segmentline-

Fizz opens the door to his apartment.

"John? I'm back."

He closes the door and looks around.

"John?"

The door opens again, hitting fizz.

"OW, FUCK!"

John stumbles in.

"Fizz, Karl has been poisoned."

Fizz blinks.

"What!?"

"Me and the doc are trying to find a treatment, I've gotta go back to their apartment."

Fizz takes a deep breath.

He slams his hand into the wall.

"I'll be there soon."

John nods.

"Text the others. I've gotta go."

He runs out the door again, and fizz pulls out his phone.

Fizz: As if things weren't bad enough, apparently Karl has been poisoned.

Anthony: uh, what?

Arron: You're joking right?

Fizz: WHY THE FUCK WOULD I BE JOKING?!

Arron: alright, we'll meet you at the hospital.

Marie: I'm coming too.

Fizz: no, we got this. I'll see you tomorrow, ok?

Marie: fine.

Anthony: your parents picked up Hayden, so we'll be there soon.

Fizz stuffs his phone back in his pocket and runs out the door.

-segmentline-

Hopper knocks on the door to the subway train in the square.

"Hello? Anyone in there?"

A slot on the door opens, and an annoyed voice grumbles at him.

"Who are you, how did you find this place?"

"Well I'm magic so that might have something to do with it."

Hopper waves his hand torward the door, and it opens back on the doorman, pushing him away.

"What the hell?!"

Hopper rolls his eyes.

"Calm down, it's just magic."

He walks past the doorman and down torward the front of the train.

Zoey is messing with some bottles of chemicals when hopper walks in.

"ACH! Ugh, hopper, don't barge in on me like that. You nearly made me drop the cyanide..."

"What are you doing with cyanide?"

Trying to see how much I need to disolve tentacles- wait, what are you even doing here?"

"Setting up some stuff for later obviously."

He walks into the next room, the front of the train.

"Right, so..."

He looks out the front window of the train.

"Hmm. Hey Zoey, do you guys have a minecart or something we can put out there?"

Zoey walks in and looks out the window with him.

"Why?"

Hopper grinds his teeth and turns around.

"No particular reason. Do you have one though?"

"We have a pedal cart on the other side of the tracks. We can move it if you want."

"Yes, perfect. Do that as quickly as possible."

He snaps his fingers and disappears.

Zoey blinks, turns around, and calls out for someone to get over to her.

-segmentline-

John opens the door to Karl's apartment and quickly goes down the hall to his room.

He looks around, and upon seeing the cup on the table half full of water, he goes over and picks it up.

"What was it that Nina said about testing if a liquid was poisoned..."

He goes into the kitchen and pours a bit of the water into a plant on the counter. It shrivels up after a short time.

"Fuck me, it was poison. Alright. At least he didn't have too much, I need to get back now."

He dumps the cup down the sink, places it on the counter, and leaves.

-segmentline-

Fizz walks into the room Karl's being treated in.

"Hey doc."

"Fizz, good, you're here."

The doctor motions for him to come over, which he does.

"He's getting worse. I don't know how long he has left, but I know it's less than an hour at this rate."

Fizz groans.

"No, no, no, why does this keep happening?!"

Anthony and Arron come running in, both out of breath from running across town.

"Fizz! How's he doing?"

"Bad. He's got less than an hour and we don't know how to help him!"

Anthony groans.

"Are we seriously gonna lose someone else this soon?! This is ridiculous!"

Karl coughs from his bed.

"Guys... Come here."

The four of them crowd around his bed.

"It's been fun. But I wish I could've been around longer..."

Anthony chokes up and glares at him.

"Don't you dare start saying goodbye! We will fix this, and you'll be just fine."

Karl starts to laugh, but it quickly turns into a coughing fit.

"Yeah, right. I'm dead and that's all there is to it."

John walks in.

"He drank about a third of a water cup containing poison. At this rate, he'll be dead in 10 minutes."

Fizz slowly turns around.

"10 minutes. So, not only will he die, but he'll die with only us 5 here?!"

John rubs his eyes.

"Yep. Some great friends we are."

They walk back to the bed, where Anthony is full on crying at this point with Arron not too much better.

Karl again tries to laugh at them, but it once again turns into a coughing fit.

"Guys, c'mon, I'm not worth all this sobbing."

Fizz scoffs.

"Yeah, it's not like you saved me from jail and gave me a place to live or anything."

"So why aren't you crying?"

Fizz shrugs.

"I have no idea. I think my mind is trying to deny this."

Karl turns to John.

"And you?"

"I'm too angry at whoever took Callie at the moment."

"Heh. You idiots better take care of her. She's gonna be devastated."

Now fizz starts choking up.

"Yup, there it is. I knew it."

Karl grins.

"Look at this, Fizz is showing an emotion other than anger, isn't it amazing? Someone get a camera!"

Fizz snorts.

"Ugh, I hate you!"

"Sure you do, that's why you're crying over me."

Fizz covers his eyes.

"Why did you have to go and get poisoned..."

"I have a knack for getting myself into trouble, guess this time I just went in too deep."

He exhales.

"I don't have much time left. When you find Callie, please just tell her how much she meant to me. Consider it my final wish."

Fizz nods.

"And you two!"

Anthony and Arron, who had both starting hugging during their sobbing fit, turns to Karl.

"Don't you dare stop loving each other. I will fucking haunt you if you do."

Anthony takes a shaky breath and nods.

"And John?"

John nods.

"Take care of my sister. Wherever she is."

John gives him a thumbs up.

Karl nods.

"I'll see you all in hell."

He takes a few more breaths, before his breathing slows, and finally stops. The color slowly drains from his face.

Fizz turns around and starts for the door.

"Where are you going?"

Fizz turns back to look at John.

"To get Callie back myself."

With that he leaves, leaving the distraught Anthony and Arron, John, and the doctor.

-segmentline-

Rece takes another sip of soda, and turns the channel again.

"When did they say they were coming back again?"

He leans his head back and thinks for moment.

"Oh, they just said later, right."

He shrugs.

"All well. At least I can pig out on food."

He hears a knock at the door.

"They wouldn't knock, who is that?"

He opens the door to see Fizz. He's slumped over and his eyes are stained red.

"Fizz...? What's wrong?"

"Karl's dead."

Rece gasps and shuts his eyes.

"How'd he die?"

"Some octarian poison that was released in his apartment."

Rece sighs.

"I'm sorry. But, knowing you, you're gonna go after them."

Fizz grins.

"Now who's reading who? I'm getting Callie back. I'm not just gonna sit around and wait."

Rece nods.

"Just be careful out there, alright? We've lost too many already."

Fizz sighs.

"Zoey, Sarah, Callie, and Karl. I plan to finish this."

Rece smiles and goes into his room. He comes back out a second later with a small cube.

"Take this with you."

"What is it?"

"Color cube. It'll shuffle all ink colors of anyone near it."

Fizz grabs it.

"How will this help me?"

Rece smirks.

"It changes everyone to the same color; yours. So, you know, they can't hurt you."

Fizz smiles.

"That's unbelievably useful. Thanks."

Rece shrugs.

"No problem. Oh, also, they can still hit you and such. So watch out for real guns and melee weapons."

Fizz nods and puts the cube in his pocket.

"So... How's it going?"

Rece chuckles.

"Don't try and make small talk, you're terrible at it. If you want to leave, you can."

Fizz frowns.

"Damn, called out. Well, I should go see Marie again anyway."

Rece gestures out the door.

"Well? Callie isn't gonna save herself."

Fizz smirks and nods, before turning around and running out.

Rece shakes his head.

"Things have been going to shit, but at least some of us have been doing good. But him... He's losing everything. Bit by bit. Can't imagine what he must be feeling."

Rece goes and sits back down.

"I hope he finds her. For his sake."

-segmentline-

Hopper teleports back to the front of the train, taking a small peek out of the window.

"Good, that's taken care of, now for the speed limiter..."

He pulls out a small device.

"The train can't go too fast, otherwise..."

He shakes himself off and crouches down below the control system.

He uses his magic to unhinge the panel in front of him, and he takes a look at all the wires.

"Octoling said the speed limiter needed to be connected to the wire that connects to the speed lever..."

He stares at the mess of wires.

"Well this is hopeless. How the hell am I supposed to figure out which one is the right wire?"

He bites his nail and uses the other hand to touch one of the wires, which gives him a small shock.

"Ow! What the..."

He touches the wire again.

"Why is there an active wire in here, the train has been decommissioned for years..."

He touches a different wire.

"Wait, the only active wire in a decommissioned train is... The speed lever!"

He quickly pulls out the speed limiter and carefully attaches it to the wire.

"That should do it. Let's hope anyway."

He stands up and reattaches the panel.

"Now then, to go and deal with this whole inkling stabbing step-down business."

He chuckles.

"Inkling, you adorable little me. You just had to go stab step-down didn't you."

He checks the speed limiter again and snorts.

"I just realized, inkling stabbed step-down. Since both of them are a version of me, I effectively just stabbed myself.

He giggles.

He snaps his fingers and disappears, his laugh echoing through the train.


	9. Let's slow it down a little

( Here's the part where everything slows down for a bit, a well deserved break for everyone I would think. Oh, and guess what? There's actually a sex scene in this chapter! I know, the sequel only took 9 chapters to finally have one. Let's get a move on shall we? Oh, one more thing actually. Octo expansion had only just been announced when I wrote this chapter. Just something or keep in mind. )

-chapterstart-

Marie paces back and forth.

"He's gonna be fine... Right?"

Fizz pops up through the grate.

Marie runs over.

"Fizz! Is Karl ok?"

Fizz sighs and shakes his head.

"He died an hour ago."

Marie does a small gasp and tears up.

"But we can't worry about that now. I'm here to help save Callie."

"Absolutely not. It's too dangerous."

"Alright, I'll go find Joel then. Where is he?"

Marie gulps.

"He's fighting Octavio. And... Callie."

Fizz blinks.

"She...?"

"No, she was brainwashed. It's those stupid sunglasses she has..."

Fizz groans.

"Then we gotta help! We can't just sit here!"

Marie bites her lip.

"Well... I can get Sheldon to bring the truck around..."

She turns around and mumbles something.

Fizz frowns and taps his foot.

"What do you mean by-"

A loud honk startles him, and he looks up.

"Oh, no fucking way."

Sheldon drives the flying truck around for a bit before landing.

"Heard you guys needed a lift?"

Marie smiles and turns to fizz.

"I'm gonna do something ridiculously stupid and dangerous, wanna watch?"

Fizz grins and gestures torwards the truck.

"Lead the way!"

They both hop on the truck, and it takes off again.

"What's with the stage?"

Marie laughs.

"I'm planning a concert."

Fizz raises an eyebrow and looks down.

"Sheldon! Bring us to a sniping view of the octo-king!"

Fizz frowns.

"Are you gonna try to snipe it? I don't know about that..."

The truck turns suddenly and fizz nearly falls off.

"Agent 4! I'll be there soon. Just hold out a little longer!"

Fizz hears what sounds like Callie, but it sounds electronic.

"What the hell is happening down there!?"

Marie grabs on to the floor.

"I'm here! Hold on!"

She pulls out her charger, and starts singing.

Fizz looks at the charger, and then at Callie, who's in full view.

"Wait, Marie dont-"

Marie fires her charger directly at Callie, breaking the glasses.

"NOOOOO! THE HYPNOSHADES!"

"Yes! That was a direct hit with my special low-tide ink!"

Marie looks down off the platform.

"Now, agent 4! While Callie is stunned! Make DJ Octavio pay!"

Fizz stares at Joel, who starts shooting the ground.

"Holy fuck, this is insane."

"WAKE UP CALLIE!"

Fizz looks down and sighs.

"Let's fucking do this."

He jumps off the stage, aiming for Callie.

"Fizz! What the hell are you doing?!"

He does a flip, putting his feet torwards the stage.

"I DONT KNOW, PROBABLY SOMETHING STUPID!"

He slams into Callie, knocking her over.

"AUGH!"

Fizz rolls off, and pulls Callie up.

"Listen to me. I need you to remember."

Callie is dazed, but she does a small nod.

"Remember everything that's happened. This isn't you! You planned a wedding a week ago, you don't fight anyone!"

He let's go of Callie, who stumbles backwards and groans.

"Octavio... Keep following..."

"No! You gotta remember! Remember when you first found Sarah! How you reacted!"

Callie frowns and groans again.

"Sarah... Thought she was bad... Was wrong..."

Fizz smiles and nods.

"Yes, now remember when Karl first asked you out."

She smiles, and sits down.

"He was so blunt about it... Was cute..."

Fizz takes a deep breath and keeps listing off things to remember, with Callie growing more and more focused.

"Fizz!"

Fizz turns around and looks at Joel, who's on a grind rail.

"Can you move that thing slightly to the left?"

Fizz looks around, before slamming his body into the side of the thing, causing it to move a bit.

Joel smiles and launches a fist back at it, knocking the whole thing over.

Fizz grabs Callie and runs.

"Marie! Could use a pick up!"

The truck swoops down, and fizz tosses Callie up before grabbing the side of it.

"Callie!"

Marie wraps Callie in a hug, and Callie returns it.

"Marie! Oh, I'm so glad to see you!"

Fizz grins and looks down to see Joel slamming a rainmaker into Octavio.

"That's for taking my friend, and killing another."

The truck drives off.

They arrive back at the hub a few minutes later.

They step off of it, and Callie hugs Fizz.

"Thank you. Athough, if you had waited, I'm sure I would've been fine."

Fizz shrugs.

"Well, I dove off a truck. And it was cool."

Callie smiles.

"It was. Athough the landing could've gone better."

Fizz chuckles.

"I guess."

Callie turns to Marie.

"Thanks for coming for me. Now, if we could give my foot some attention?"

Marie looks down, and sees her foot hastily wrapped in bandages.

"What happened?!"

"I got shot, how do think they captured me? I beat one of them up pretty bad though."

Marie chuckles.

"Good to know you put up a fight. I thought maybe they drugged you or something..."

Callie snorts.

"Please, I never go down without a fight."

She turns torwards the grate.

"So are we gonna get back? I wanna see Karl."

Fizz and Marie look at each other.

"What's wrong?"

Marie sighs.

"Callie, Karl's dead."

Callie sits down on the ground, and puts her head down.

"No. lt can't be."

Fizz bends down.

"He died of an octarian poison that was placed in your apartment."

Callie slams her hand into the ground.

"When. When did he die."

"Two hours ago."

Callie stands up and kicks the bench next to her, before grabbing the broken shades off of her head and throwing them.

She yells out in anger, kicking the bench over and over again.

She stops, and turns to fizz.

"Did he suffer? Was he screaming in agony when he died?!"

Fizz shakes his head.

"He gave each one of us a last request before slowly drifting off peacefully."

Callie sighs.

"I'm staying here."

Marie frowns.

"But, we have to-"

"No, we don't. Just announce the return of me and the zapfish and leave it at that. I can't be in inkopolis. I just can't."

She walks off, going down a hill and walking away.

Marie nods.

"I guess she needs time. I'm staying here with her."

Fizz stands up.

"I'm gonna... I don't know, actually."

Marie pulls him into a hug.

"Just take a break, alright? You need it."

Fizz nods.

"You're right. A couple days. Then I'll find Zoey."

Marie let's him go and pushes him torwards the grate.

"Go. I'll take care of Callie."

Fizz takes a deep breath and jumps into the grate.

-segmentline-

Zoey throws a test tube across the room.

"MY BROTHER JUST DIED, AND YOU'RE TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN?!"

Captain cuttlefish raises his cane.

"Look here, we still have work to do! I can't have you running off now, especially with how close we are!"

Zoey growls.

"You could at least tell me where my baby is..."

"In due time. For now, we need to help agent 8! She's our lifeline here."

"Yeah, I know. Everything's going to shit out there, and you just want me to stay down here and help this damn octoling."

"Watch your mouth. This is important, you know that."

Zoey chucks another tube.

"Important my ass! Why is this so important, huh?!"

"This could fix relations between inklings and octolings forever! We need to keep going."

Zoey groans.

"I'm not doing anymore work until I see my baby."

The captain sighs.

"Alright. Come on."

They walk down the hallway, turning corners serveral times, before they arrive at a room.

"She's in here."

She pushes open the door and looks around.

Around the room are several creatures looking at the child through an enormous glass case.

"What is this?"

"We are making sure he can survive. No octoinkling has ever been recordered before now, and we don't know if they can exist."

Zoey goes over to the case.

"She's 2 and a half, and you think she can't survive?"

The captain shrugs.

"Better safe than sorry. You will have her back when we make absolutely sure."

Zoey sighs.

"Alright, fine. Take me back to my workstation."

They walk back.

"Agent 8 has started to breathe, we are making progress."

Zoey nods.

"Yeah, I think I have an idea."

-segmentline-

Aurie and her team enter the apartment.

"I think my strategy works, I got that guys number!"

Zodiac laughs.

"We were trying to win a game, ya know."

"I thought I told you, sex always comes first."

Joey rolls his eyes.

"You're unbearable sometimes, I hope you know that."

Aurie shrugs.

"Eh, I make up for it by having sex with everyone."

Zodiac and Joey look at each other.

Rece yawns.

"Fun day?"

Aurie smiles and kisses him.

"It was fun."

Zodiac smirks.

"Oh? Aurie, you got something to tell us?"

Aurie sits down next to Rece and giggles.

"I like him. So I'm dating him."

Joey whistles.

"Damn Rece! You've got some moves!"

Rece shrugs.

"No I don't, that's why she likes me."

Zodiac frowns.

"Are you staying here for good?"

Rece nods.

"Well, if that's ok with all of you."

Joey gives a thumbs up.

Zodiac shrugs.

Joey nudges zodiac, who rolls his eyes and nods.

"Yeah, you can stay."

Rece smiles.

"On one condition."

Rece frowns.

Zodiac grins.

"You have to be our forth."

Rece groans.

"Ugh, fine. I'm super out of practice though."

Aurie leans on him.

"Not a problem. It is off season after all."

Zodiac and Joey both smile.

"OFF SEASON!"

Rece chuckles.

"Alright. But how about I get to know you two better? I don't actually know a whole lot about you guys."

Joey nods.

"We can go to the bar later, if you want."

Rece nods.

"Sounds good. But first, Aurie? You're gonna fuck me, aren't you?

Aurie smirks and takes off her shirt.

Rece rolls his eyes.

"That's a yes, then?"

Aurie swipes her hand at Joey and zodiac.

"Get out of here."

Joey shrugs and pulls Zodiac torwards the bedrooms.

Aurie bends down and pulls Rece's clothing down.

"Mmm, been waiting all day for this~"

She moved to a laying position, and places her head over Rece's lap.

She takes the whole thing at once, and

Rece grunts.

"Mmf... You amaze me sometimes..."

Aurie moves up and down ridiculously fast, and Rece gasps.

"Oooooh~ slow down a bit..."

Aurie stops and sits up.

"I didn't say stop-"

Aurie kisses him, cutting him off.

While they kiss, Aurie moves herself over Rece.

She puts herself down onto him, and Rece breaks the kiss to sigh.

"That feels better every time."

"Of course it does, this is me we're talking about!"

She starts moving, slowly at first but gradually faster.

"Ah~ ah~!"

She slows down for a moment as she cums, before speeding up again.

Rece bites his lip.

"Mmf... Gonna cum."

Aurie does a quick speed up before slamming down, causing Rece to orgasm.

"Ooooooooh~"

She gets off, and pushes Rece to the side, while laying on her back.

"Come on, you know I never stop after the first one~"

Rece gets back up and goes to the other side of couch. He then re-enters her.

"Yes~ go!"

He starts moving quickly, with Aurie setting her head on the couch.

"Mmm! Yes!"

They continue thay way for a bit, the only sounds being Aurie's moans.

Aurie's moans eventually grow in volume, and she finishes soon after, letting herself relax.

Rece keeps going, until he too finishes, pulling out and taking a breath.

"You know, I never thought I would have to be prepared for you to walk on and ask me to do this."

Aurie laughs.

"Benefits of living here. Free sexual relief."

Rece nods and moves his pants back up.

"So, what do you want to do now?"

"Well, I'm going to take a shower, but after that we can watch TV or something until you leave."

Rece grabs the remote and turns the TV on.

"Sounds good to me."

-segmentline-

Joey shrugs and pulls zodiac torwards the bedrooms.

"Well, they're gonna be a while. Come on."

Zodiac rolls his eyes.

"Aurie's tired. She won't be as long as usual."

They go into Joey's room, and sit down.

"So, have you heard about Karl?"

Zodiac shakes his head.

"No, why?"

"He's dead dude."

"What!? ...how's everyone taking it?"

"I don't know, we've been playing turf wars all day."

Zodiac pulls out his phone.

"Woah, I was added to a group chat with all of them in it."

Joey frowns and pulls out his phone.

"Hmm. Me too. Weird."

Joey types a quick message.

Joey: who added me and zodiac to this group chat?

Fizz: I did.

Zodiac: why though?

Fizz: In case I need you guys for anything.

Zodiac: oh, wow. Thanks fizz.

Fizz: no, I'm kidding. Everyone is absent from this chat now, except for Arron and Anthony, so I figured I'd add you two in to fill up some spaces.

Joey: fair enough.

Joey puts away his phone, and stands up.

"Well, how's about we go for a walk? I want some food from that bakery."

Zodiac chuckles and stands up.

"Yeah, alright. But try not to pig out this time."

"That was one time!"

"Yeah, we had to play double overtime to pay for it."

Joey waves him off and walks out, quickly moving through the living room and out the door. Zodiac follows.

"Alright. So what's the deal with you getting all these Minifigures?"

Zodiac stares at Joey.

"Don't think I don't know. I see those things. Why are you getting them?"

"It's for a collection, alright? I think they look cool."

"Whatever man, just don't spend all our money. We have another person in the house now."

"Yeah, yeah Mr financial advisor. I know how to handle money."

Joey smiles and shrugs.

"Alright, fine. I trust you. Now where's the bakery again?"

Zodiac groans.

"You idiot. It's the other way!"

Joey laughs.

"Yeah, I know."

Zodiac facepalms.

-segmentline-

Marina and Pearl walk out of the studio.

"Why do you think we got the day off?"

Pearl shrugs.

"No idea. The producer seemed very upset about something though."

Marina looks around for a second before whispering.

"So... The train?"

Pearl nods.

"Yep. Come on. We got work to do."

Marina grins and takes off running.

"No, wait! We gotta wait for-"

Marina is quickly stopped by several inklings asking her for an autograph.

Pearl rolls her eyes and walks over.

"Move it, move it! We got places to be!"

The inklings glare at her, but move aside.

"Marina, what did I tell you about sprinting off like that?"

Marina puts her head down.

"Aw, it's fine. Let's just get moving."

Pearl leads Marina out of the crowd, and they walk torwards the subway entrance.

Pearl leans into the door and knocks.

"Agents 5 and 6 here."

The door opens slowly.

"Come in."

The captain moves them in and shuts the door.

"Good to see you two. We're making progress on agent 8, but agent 7 is still missing. Any sign of him?"

Pearl shakes her head.

"Nope. No idea where he went."

"Shoot. Alright, come on. I got a job for you."

He leads them down the station, and into the train car.

"Do either of you know what the inkling conservation principal is?"

Pearl nods, but marina doesn't.

"The what?"

The captain stops them and turns around.

"The I.C.P. is the idea that an inkling can be almost perfectly recreated with just a piece of their tentacle. Unfortunately, it's never been proven."

He turns around and starts walking again.

"So we tried it on some octolings. They... didn't survive to say the least, but we did learn something."

He points to the large platform where what looks like an octoling is laying down, motionless.

"If we take the perfect amount of tentacle matter from both races, we can make a somewhat stable body. The only problem we're having is that we can't find the right amount."

He sighs.

"And the fact that the body won't survive for very long, a couple months at best. They also don't retain what memories they had before their death."

Marina frowns.

"Wait, if you're putting in more than one person's tentacle in, what decides who inhabits the body?"

"That's the other thing. We don't know. We think if we can get agent 8 up, we can restore peace between the two races, and then focus on the research."

Pearl nods.

"Alright, so why are we here?"

"To sort some tentacles."

They enter a room with a giant bin of tentacles in the center, and two smaller bins beside it.

"Inkling tentacles go in the left one, octolings in the right. Let me know when you've finished."

He walks out, and pearl groans.

"Ugh, seriously? Sorting?"

Marina takes a tentacle and throws it into the left bin.

"At least it's something to do."

They begin grabbing tentacles, and throwing them in the respective bins.

"So I was thinking we could go for a date later."

Pearl laughs.

"What, is this not your idea of a date?"

Marina grins.

"No, I prefer to be sitting in a restaurant conversing with my girlfriend, not in a decommissioned subway sorting tentacles."

Pearl chuckles and tosses another tentacle into the right bin.

"Well, we can go out as soon as we're done, so let's get this done."

Marina grabs a tentacle and throws it into the right bin, and gets another one to throw In, but sees another tentacle in the bin that she didn't throw in.

"Did I grab two?"

Pearl looks over.

"Yeah, why? Did you think you only grabbed one?"

"Yeah, I could've sworn... Well, If you saw me grab two..."

She throws the tentacle she was holding, and they keep going.

"Do you need glasses, Marina?"

"Why, because I can't see when I'm holding two tentacles?"

"No, it's just... I see you squint at things a lot, and you seem to have trouble reading."

"I don't need glasses."

"Alright, if you say so."

They throw the last of the tentacles in, and nod.

"Alright let's go see the cap."

They walk through the train car again, eventually getting to the room with Jamie.

"Ah, finished?"

They nod, and they look at the glass case.

"What's with the kid?"

"We're keeping her under our care while her mother works on research."

"Hmm. Alright. We're gonna go, we have a date."

The captain nods.

"Oh, but first, grab me an octoling tentacle please? I'm gonna see if I can get agent 8 up within the week."

Marina nods and runs off.

"So, why are you so focused on this?"

The captain chuckles.

"I'm old. I'm hoping if I start this now, it'll be developed enough when I'm gone that they can bring me back."

Pearl shrugs.

"A bit selfish, but I understand. Here's hoping, right?"

The captain nods.

Marina runs back in and hands him a tentacle.

"Ah, thank you. You can leave now."

They walk out.

Hopper walks in.

"Hey cap. How's the research going?"

"Good. I think we almost have agent 8 up."

Hopper nods and looks at the tentacle in the Captain's hand before raising an eyebrow.

"Another one? You sure that's a good idea?"

"It'll work. Eventually."

Hopper slowly nods and exits.

He holds up the now empty plastic bag.

"Fuck, that was a bad idea. Uh... Shit."

He crumbles the bag and stuffs it into his pocket.

"Even if she gets her tentacle into some octoling, she won't survive for very long... And she won't have any memory of fizz..."

He groans and steps back into the void.

"Octoling, have we ever seen anything like this?"

Octoling shakes her head and looks through some papers.

"Nope. Athough that might be because of octo-expansion."

Hopper nods.

"Yeah. New fanfictions with this kind of story should surface soon."

He takes one of the papers and writes on it.

"Slice of life is going in the catalog. I've had way too much involvment for it not to be."

Octoling nods.

"Mhmm. Oh, also, Callie and Marie went to visit legacy of humanity."

"Nice place. What part?"

"15... I think?"

"Ah, don't remember which one that was."

Octoling stands up and streches.

"So... Are we ever gonna go back and-"

"I'll deal with HIM when I feel like it."

Octoling visably cringes at the word him, and sighs.

"You can't ignore them."

Hopper growls.

"Maybe I should bring Chara in here. She doesn't deserve to be around HIM."

Octoling rolls her eyes.

"You need to deal with this. It's just gonna get worse."

Hopper frowns and shrugs.

"Whatever. I'm going to taking in a stranger for a bit."

He leaves.

Octoling sighs.

"Now then... Where was I?"

She grabs the papers again and starts looking through them.


	10. No home like the death zone

( Some odd stuff in this chapter, just to make things that bit more confusing. This is the calm before the storm in a way, the final break before what is inevitabably the climax. I've been hinting at it this whole time, have you noticed? I'm sure you'll see what I mean when the next chapter arrives. )

-chapterstart-

Fizz is moving around his room.

The song playing from his stereo fills the room as he lazily dances to it.

He takes a drink of his cider bottle, and exhales.

He spins around, some of the cider from his bottle dipping onto the floor.

He coughs, and sits down.

"Ugh..."

He shakes his head and gets up again, turning off the stereo.

"I hate that song."

He takes another drink out of the bottle, and sighs.

"I hate this house too."

He kicks his table, and pushes it back a bit.

"Maybe I should move. Somewhere out of the way."

He puts his feet up on the table and drinks from the bottle again.

"Wasn't John supposed to come back by now?"

He looks at his phone, which has no new messages.

"He's gotta be somewhere... I'm sure he'll turn up."

He puts the bottle on the table and lays down.

"I should clean up tomorrow. I own twice the stuff I should..."

He drifts off, just as the door opens and John stumbles inside.

"Hah... Hah..."

He looks around, and sees fizz sleeping on the couch.

"Good."

He quickly goes into the kitchen and grabs a vial out of one of the drawers.

"Good thing Fizz never cooks."

He picks up the vial.

"Poison, poison, poison. What am I going to do with you..."

He chuckles.

"I'll figure out something. For now, this is staying with me.

He attaches the vial of poison to a clip on his waist, and goes to his bedroom.

"I hope I don't have to use this on anyone. Especially after what happened today."

He moves to the bed and collapses onto it.

-segmentline-

Anthony yawns and pulls Arron closer.

"So, what should we do tomorrow?"

Arron rests his head on Anthony's shoulder and sighs.

"Dunno. Maybe we should go see Fizz..."

Anthony nods.

"He's been hit the hardest through all of this."

Anthony rubs Arron's head.

"Thanks for getting me through all of that. What would I do without you?"

Arron smiles and shrugs.

"Well, you probably wouldn't be married right now, soooo..."

"Maybe. I also wouldn't be as happy as I am now. Despite everything."

Arron gets up a bit and kisses Anthony's cheek.

"You know it goes both ways, right?"

Anthony nods.

"Of course."

Anthony's phone buzzes, and he pulls it out.

He looks at the message and frowns.

"Uh, I just got a message that says 'youre dead.' That's not good."

Arron grabs the phone.

"Oh hell no, not happening. Who's number is this?"

"I have no clue."

Arron gives the phone back.

"We have a problem now. Text fizz."

Anthony nods a types a message.

Anthony: so, I just got a message saying you're dead.

They wait for a couple minutes, before Anthony sets the phone down.

"He's probably asleep. We're just gonna have to tell him tomorrow."

Arron groans.

"Alright. Let's just get to sleep."

Arron gets up and walks off.

Anthony sighs.

"Fuck, this is gonna end badly."

He gets up and follows Arron.

-segmentline-

Rece downs another drink, with zodiac and Joey cheering.

"Ugh, what was that?!"

"Vodka!"

Rece coughs.

"Alright hot shot, let's see you handle this one."

Rece flags the waiter and orders a drink.

"Well zodiac, take it down!"

Zodiac grabs the shot glass and swallows the drink, before groaning and hitting the counter.

"Holy shit."

Rece chuckles.

"That's how it's done."

Joey grins.

"You know, I never thought you would be the type to play drinking games."

Rece shrugs.

"I'm not, but you're paying for the drinks, Soo..."

Zodiac coughs and punches Rece.

"You bitch!"

Rece laughs.

"So Rece, why did you decide to come here?"

"I wanted a better job. My old job was a factory worker."

Joey nods.

"Understandable. You've certainly got a better set up here."

Zodiac coughs again.

"Don't ever get me that drink again."

"Dude, I asked him to surprise me."

Joey bursts out laughing.

"Oh, of course you did!"

Zodiac sighs.

"Damn it Rece, when did you get so reckless?"

"When you brought me into a bar!"

Joey takes a drink, and gets up.

"I'm gonna go request some songs, anything you wanna hear?"

Rece nods.

"Put some September on that list."

Joey smiles and nods.

Zodiac coughs.

"Chop suey, if you don't mind the metal..."

Joey stares at zodiac.

"You like chop suey?"

"Hell yeah, dude."

Joey nods.

"Alright, be right back."

He walks off, and zodiac turns to Rece.

"You know, you're really hard to read."

"Tell that to fizz."

"He's your brother, of course he's gonna be able to read you. But I've looked at you every way I can, and i still don't know why you do all these things."

Rece smiles and leans on the counter.

"You wouldn't know because I don't know. Why do I do what I do? I have no idea. But it's worked so far."

Zodiac chuckles.

"Yeah, getting Aurie to date you is quite an accomplishment."

"How so?"

"After Panda, she made both me and Joey swear to never get to attached to her. I feel it was more for her sake, but still."

Rece frowns.

"I never met panda, but I know fizz knew him. What about him was so attractive to Aurie?"

"He refused to accept that he was good enough for Aurie, I guess."

"Really? How long did they know each other?"

"Couple of days I think. Aurie gets attached to that kind of person easily."

"Oh, I know."

Joey comes back, and sits back down.

"September was coming next anyway, and chop suey's after that."

Zodiac smiles.

"What did you request?"

"DJs got us falling in love again. It's amazing to see how many people dance when that song comes on."

Rece sighs.

"Ah, I remember when that song first came out. That was the best school dance ever."

"Oh really? What happened?"

Rece leans back.

"Fizz kissed Zoey, Karl almost blew up the DJ table, and I beat the shit out of this asshat who thought he was the shit."

Joey and zodiac stare in amazment.

"Wait, hold on, fizz kissed Zoey? What the hell happened with that?"

Rece shrugs.

"I dunno, ask him sometime."

Rece looks at his phone.

"It's 11:30 guys, anyone ready to go yet?"

They shake heir heads.

"Good, now let's get some more drinks."

-segmentline-

"You know, it's weird."

Karl puts a card down.

"What? Watching everything like this?"

Sarah shrugs.

"Yeah, I guess, but I mean like just seeing how everyone moves on."

Panda puts a card down and sighs.

"You get used to it. This place is weirdly accommodating."

Marshall groans.

"Yeah, but not for injuries. Just be glad you guys had a quick death."

The girl puts down a card and snorts.

"What quick death? I got my head beaten in."

Sarah rubs her gash and shrugs.

"I wouldn't say this is painless, but it's bearable."

Karl and panda look at each other.

They both roll their eyes.

Marshall puts down a card.

"How do you feel about fizz going back to Marie, Sarah?"

Sarah frowns.

"I mean... I understand. But... It's hard to look at."

Can I just jump in here and ask why the fuck I'm allowed to see this?

(I dunno, I just wanted to write some of these idiots again.)

Karl laughs.

"He's getting mad hoes, that's for sure."

Marshall lays down and groans.

"Sorry again for killing you Sarah. I didn't think you would be back there."

Sarah glares at him and nudges Karl.

"It's your turn."

Karl puts down a card.

"Uno."

The girl growls and slams her cards down.

"I hate this game. Can we play something more fun for the rest of eternity?"

Sarah rolls her eyes.

"You hate everything. Stop being so bitchy."

The girl slumps over.

"You're the one who can't get over that murderer..."

Sarah grinds her teeth.

"You say one more thing and I'll kill you again!"

The girl smirks.

"Marie is better than you."

Sarah screams and dives onto her.

Marshall puts down a card.

"Uno."

Karl puts down his card.

"Ha! I win!"

Panda rolls his eyes.

"You always win. I want a different game."

"GET OFF OF ME YOU CRAZY BITCH!"

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT! I'M GLAD FIZZ KILLED YOU!"

Karl goes over and pulls Sarah off.

"Calm the hell down."

Sarah sighs.

"Fine, whatever."

The girl gets up and stretches.

"Thank you Karl. Glad someone sees some sense."

Sarah growls.

"Shut up Tori, it's not like you have any reason to be here."

"More reason then you."

Panda snaps his fingers.

"Hey, hey. Shut up. I think fizz is waking up."

Sarah runs over.

"Do you think he'll go after Zoey today?"

Marshall laughs.

"I doubt it."

Karl looks at him.

"You don't know that. But at least i know she's safe. That's one benefit of being dead."

Tori groans and turns away.

"Let me know when it actually gets interesting."

-segmentline-

Fizz groans and falls off his couch before standing up.

"What's today? I don't even fucking remember man..."

He stumbles into the kitchen and grabs a glass of water.

He hears a groan from the hallway, followed by John walking in.

"Hey fizz."

"Morning. What took you so long to get back?"

"I went out. After everything that happened yesterday I really just need a break for a bit."

Fizz nods and hands John some water.

"I'm taking another day or two to recover. If you still want to look for Zoey, that's fine, but I'm staying here."

John sighs.

"Mhmm, I figured as much. It's fine."

Fizz yawns and grabs his phone.

"Wait, what?"

He reads the message that Anthony sent the previous night.

"Oh no. Who the fuck...?"

He dials Anthony's number and waits.

"Fizz c'mon, not before 7..."

"I felt this was important, who the fuck is texting you that?"

"I dunno, it's some number I don't recognize."

"Wonderful."

"Look, Fizz. Me and Arron were gonna come over later anyway; so, can this wait?"

"Alright. Don't take too long."

Anthony hangs up.

Fizz gestures his phone torwards John.

"Well, if you're gonna go, do it now. I got cleaning to do, and if you're still here, I'm gonna make you do something."

John nods and goes back to his room.

Fizz goes into the living room and looks around.

"Where did half of this stuff even come from? Oh, right. Sarah had some spending habits."

He takes some stuff off of the shelves and sets them into boxes.

John walks out and and waves at fizz before opening the door and leaving.

"Alright, well... What's next."

-segmentline-

Aulbrey throws her wrench at her machine and yells out.

Zack limps over.

"What's wrong this time?"

"Fucking thing shorted out. We need more power."

"Where the hell are we gonna get more power?"

Aulbrey stands up and sighs.

"We're gonna have to get a generator."

Zack groans.

"Why?! Those things are nearly impossible to steal..."

"Steal it from the octarians."

Zack blinks.

"What."

"They're recovering from their loss of Octavio again, they won't notice if you swipe a generator."

Zack thinks for a moment.

"That could work. But we'd have some trouble if they find out."

"Who cares, just get the generator."

Zack nods and walks off.

Aulbrey groans and flops over.

"Damn this thing. Can't it just work for once?!"

She gets up and kicks it.

"I need a drink."

She goes into the other room and grabs a bottle, pouring it into a glass.

"Almost done. Just need some more power."

She takes a drink and coughs.

"I said CIDER DAMN IT!"

She throws the glass on the ground.

"DOES ANYTHING GO RIGHT AROUND HERE?!"

She takes a breath.

"I'm going out. Fuck this place."

She grabs a bag and walks out of the door.

-segmentline-

Rece groans, grabs his head, and looks around.

"When did we get back?"

Zodac, who was lying face down on the floor, mumbles something.

"What?"

Zodiac picks his head off the floor.

"Sometime around 1..."

"Where's Joey?"

"No clue..."

Zodiac puts his head back down while rece gets up and tries to steady himself.

"Ooh.. hurts. Hurts a lot."

Rece stumbles out of the room and into the kitchen, where Joey is sitting.

"Uh, what are you doing?"

"Trying to move. I'm failing quite badly though."

Rece opens the fridge and grabs two bottles of water.

"Here."

He tosses one at Joey, and it hits him in the arm.

"Thanks."

They drink the bottles, and Joey pulls himself up.

"Damn, that was some night."

"No kidding. We should do that again."

Joey laughs.

"Not for a while. I need to recover."

Zodiac crawls into the kitchen.

"Water."

Rece throws a bottle at him. It hits him in the face.

"Ow. Thanks."

Joey taps the counter.

"You gonna cook anything today?"

Zodiac groans and stands up.

"Yeah, yeah, just give me a fuckin second."

He walks over to a cabinet and opens it, with a pan falling out a slamming into his head.

Zodiac collapses on the spot, with Joey and Rece bursting out in laughter.

"I SWEAR I'M GONNA KILL HER."

"Who, me? Who will you ever have sex with if not me?"

Aurie walks in, looking over everything.

"Oh, the pan again. Nice one."

Rece and Joey calm down, and zodiac gets back up again.

"Fuck you, cook your own food."

Aurie shrugs.

"Guess we're going out for breakfast today. Who's up for the breakfast joint?"

Joey nods.

"Hell yeah."

Zodiac sighs.

"Whatever, let's go already. I'm starving."

He pushes past everyone else and goes to the door.

Aurie rolls her eyes.

"Alright, come on guys."

They start walking.

"So, which one of you got the most drunk?"

Joey raises his hand.

"I'm still drunk, to be honest."

Zodiac burps.

"You passed out first though, I had to carry you home!"

Rece laughs.

"What did I do then? Stumble behind you?"

"Yes!"

Joey giggles.

"Yeah, passing out first means I got the most drunk though."

"No it doesn't!"

"Alright, calm down you three, it was just a question."

Zodiac glares at Joey, who sticks his tounge out at him.

Aurie points down the street.

"There it is, come on guys!"

She takes off down the street, with the other three following close behind.

They run inside, and Aurie leads them to the corner booth.

Rece picks up a menu.

"Any recommendations? I've never been here before."

Joey puts the menu down.

"Any waffle. It doesn't matter which one, they are all fucking amazing."

Rece nods.

"So, Aurie, what did you do last night?"

Aurie smirks at zodiac.

"Come on, you know exactly what I did. I should be asking what you guys did."

Joey shrugs.

"Just talked and drank. I think we did some dancing, but I'm not sure."

Zodiac stifles a laugh.

"What?"

"Oh, you tried to dance alright."

Rece giggles.

"Yeah, TRIED."

Joey groans.

"Damn it."

The waiter walks up, takes their orders, and walks off.

"Sound like you guys had fun."

"As far as we can tell, yes."

"Cool. Now, let's talk team here."

Zodiac nods.

"Right, what weapon do you play Rece?"

"I used to use a inkbrush, but I haven't used one in years."

"That could work. We're gonna have to switch up our strategy a bit though."

Aurie leans on Rece, who puts his arm around her.

"It's fine, I'm sure it won't take much practice to get Rece back into the groove."

Joey taps the table a bit.

"Let's hope so. There's only a few weeks until the next season."

Rece smiles.

"Well, I have some good coaches, so this shouldn't be too hard."

The waiter comes back with the food, and they begin eating.

"You were right, these waffles are amazing!"

"Told you."

They finish, pay the bill, and leave.

"So, how about we get you started with the practice?"

Rece nods.

"Sounds good."

-segmentline-

"What do you mean?"

The captain sighs.

"I mean she's waking up. Come on."

Zoey follows the captain to the platform where agent 8 is laying.

"She started moving, and mumbling."

Zoey steps forward and crouches over agent 8.

"Hello?"

Agent 8 flings her arm up, hitting Zoey in the chin. Zoey stumbles and falls backwards.

Agent 8 turns herself over and scrambles backwards.

"Get away from me!"

Zoey groans and stands up.

"Do we have a match on who got control yet?"

The captain shakes his head.

"We can't figure it out. The tentacle must've been contaminated."

"Oh goodie."

Agent 8 is darting her eyes around the room.

"Who are you!?"

Zoey slowly moves forward.

"I'm Zoey, and this is the captain."

Agent 8 is taking rapid breaths, and backs up more.

"Stay away! Stay away!"

Zoey stops moving.

"It's ok, it's ok. Are you ok?"

Agent 8 takes a deep breath.

"I... Who am I?"

"You are agent 8. You are a part of the team down here."

Agent 8 looks at herself.

"I feel like I should know more than that... Can I have a mirror?"

Zoey looks back to the captain, who shrugs, and walk off.

"Alright, he's getting one."

Agent 8 moans.

"What's this feeling...? Mmmf..."

The captain comes back and gives the mirror to Zoey.

Zoey holds up the mirror for agent 8.

She looks at herself in it.

"Red? My eyes are red? That doesn't seem right... Also, this feeling is getting stronger..."

She moans again and falls over.

"It feels tense..."

"Ah, you must be pent up."

She sits up.

"Pent...up?"

Zoey stands up.

"C'mon, I'll lead you to your train car."

Agent 8 stands up and grabs Zoey's hand.

"Can you stay with me... Please?"

Zoey nods.

"Of course."

They walk to the empty train car at the front of the train.

"This is your car. Now, what do you want me to do?"

"Help me with with this 'pent up' thing."

Zoey points at agent 8's pants.

"Just, rub that area for a while, and it'll be good."

Agent 8 frowns and strips, causing Zoey to blush and turn away.

"This? What does this have to do with- ooooh~..."

Zoey looks back for moment, seeing agent 8 rubbing herself furiously.

"Yeah, just do that until you feel better. I'm gonna go now, ok? I'm just in the next car if you need me."

Zoey leaves, closing the door behind her.

"Alright, now we just find out who she was. Somehow."

The captain walks in.

"Where's agent 8?"

A loud moan followed by a sigh rings through the car.

"Ah. Well, keep an eye on her. We should have her figured out soon."

Zoey nods and grabs a syringe.

"I have an idea, just give me some time."

"Take all the time you need."

The captain walks out, and Zoey tapes the syringe to the floor, pointing it diagonally torwards the door.

"Now we wait."

The moaning starts again, and Zoey sits down.

"This might be a while."

John tries to open the subway door.

"C'mon, open you piece of shit..."

He tries again, and he hears a click.

"Is that it? Did that do it?"

He pushes on the door, and it slowly moves open.

He enters the train car, and looks down the long hallway.

"She's gotta be here somewhere."

He feels something prick his arm, and he looks down.

A small syringe is sticking out of his arm.

"What the hellllllll..."

He collapses, and the captain goes and looks over him.

"Who let him in?!"

"No one sir. He opened the door from the outside."

"Whatever. Now we have to deal with him. Send him to Zoey for questioning."

The jellyfish salutes, and picks up the body.

Zoey sits in her chair, staring at the door to agent 8's car.

"She's really going at it, isn't she?"

The jellyfish comes in from the other side and clears his throat.

Zoey swings the chair around and gasps.

"Wha- where did you find him?"

"He broke in."

Zoey rolls her eyes.

"Alright, set him down. I got this."

The jellyfish nods and walks out.

Zoey takes the syringe out of his arm and places it on her workbench, before slapping John.

He snaps awake, gasping for breath.

"What the fuck?!"

Zoey glares at him, and John realizes what he's looking at.

"ZOEY!-"

"Don't Zoey me, you idiot."

John frowns and pulls himself up.

"What... Wait, you're working for these guys?"

"I told you I was agent 3. The way they did it was unorthodox, but still."

"But... Why didn't you let me know?"

"I did. I sent you a note a few days after I got settled in."

John facepalms.

"I've been staying at fizz's since you were kidnapped."

Zoey groans.

"Of course. Look. Im fine, alright? You can leave now."

John sighs.

"Alright, but when will you be out of here?"

"I can leave whenever, I'm just not going to."

"What...?"

Zoey points at the pictures on her workbench.

"Look."

John looks at the photos. The photos are shots of all of her friends.

"I'm still working here for them. I know you won't get it, but you need to leave me alone. Ok?"

John slowly nods and turns to the door.

"I guess I'll see you sometime then?"

Zoey crosses her arms and gestures out.

John sighs and leaves.

"OW!"

Zoey swings around to see agent 8 holding her foot.

"Who left a syringe here?!"

Zoey walks over and grabs the syringe.

"Perfect. Now we can find out who you are."

Agent 8 frowns.

"But I thought I was agent 8?"

"You are, but you're someone else too. And I'm gonna figure it out. Come on, sit here."

Agent 8 sits in the chair, and Zoey looks at her face.

"You're right, the red eyes don't look natrual. Also, your tentacles are far too short for an inkling girl."

"I'm an inkling?"

"No, you're an octoling. Well, technically anyway."

Zoey takes the syringe and pours the fluid out of it into a cup.

"Try this. It should fix your eye color."

Agent 8 drinks it, and gags.

"Ugh!"

Her eyes turn from red to black, to blue, to purple, to finally green before going back to red and repeating the cycle.

"Uh, alright. That did not work."


	11. CHOO CHOO

( *soft humming of railroad wrath* )

-chapterstart-

Fizz hears a knock on the door and goes to open it.

"Hey guys-"

He's suddenly tackled, and a knife is drawn to his neck.

"You're gonna tell me what I want to know."

Fizz glares at the octoling.

"Oh really? Killing me won't help you."

The octoling picks up the knife and stabs it into fizz's arm, causing fizz to scream in pain.

"I wasn't planning on killing you."

Fizz growls.

"You might want to close the door."

The octoling looks behind her, and fizz headbutts her, causing her to let go of his left hand.

"DISTRACTION!"

He pushes her off, and stands up. He grabs the knife out of his arm.

He points it at her.

"Now, it's you who's gonna be talking."

The octoling groans, and stands up.

Fizz walks over with the knife pointed at her all the time, and closes the door.

"Now. Shall we?"

He gestures to the couch, and the octoling huffs and sits down.

Fizz goes into the kitchen and grabs some bandages before coming out.

He starts wrapping his wound, while glaring at the octoling.

"So. You wanna tell me what you're doing here?"

The octoling crosses her arms.

"I was looking for someone."

Fizz raises an eyebrow.

"An octoling? There's only a couple that I know."

The octoling nods and pulls out a photo.

"Her name is Sarah. She was abandoned here by some faggot, and I need to bring her back."

Fizz stabs the knife into the table and sighs.

"Alright, for starters, she came here two years ago, what took you so long?"

"Tracking someone in this place is near impossible."

"And two..."

He goes into his bedroom and takes the photo of him and Sarah to the octoling.

"I knew her."

The octoling grabs the photo and smiles.

"Yes! Perfect, where is- wait. Knew her...?"

Fizz shakes his head.

"She died about a week ago. Concert bombing."

The octoling stares at nothing for a moment before laying herself down on the couch.

"I'm a failure. I couldn't get her back in time, and now she's dead."

"If you don't mind, how did you know her?"

"I'm her mother."

Fizz blinks.

"Hmm. Meeting you was the opposite of meeting Sarah."

The octoling turns over.

"How so?"

"Well, you tried to kill me."

"Oh. Sorry about that."

Fizz puts the photo of Sarah on the table.

The octoling looks at it and sighs.

"She looks so happy. Was she happy here?"

Fizz smiles.

"I would say so. She had plenty of friends."

She nods.

"Name's fizz by the way. In case you were wondering."

He sticks out his hand.

"Victoria."

She shakes his hand.

"So, how did you find her?"

"I didn't. My friends Arron and Anthony did. They found her yelling out stuff in an alley. She said she was pushed into a grate by a guy that didn't want to date her."

Victoria snorts.

"Yeah, that fucker got what was coming to him for that. But what happened after?"

"They took her home and gave her the guest room, and she started meeting the rest of the group. First Callie, then me, then Karl."

"Callie? The superstar?"

"She insisted that Anthony was making a mistake by taking her in."

Victoria rolls her eyes.

"Of course."

"Anthony responded by saying it was Arron who took her in, and Callie left after that."

"What happened when you met her?"

"I walked in on her nearly naked, and I called her hot. She kicked me out."

Victoria laughs.

"Karl got the quick introduction. He walked in, said hi, and left."

"So you just took her in?"

"Yeah. She moved in with me soon after, as I had just gotten a apartment in flounder heights. We had also started dating at that point, so that was another thing."

Victoria looks at fizz in suprise.

"She dated you?"

"She almost married me. I Proposed a couple weeks before she died."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"No, it's fine. It's just hard to think about."

She sits up.

"She was happy here. With you, and with this place. At least I have that comfort."

The door opens again and Anthony and Arron walk inside.

"Hey fizz-woah, wait a minute!"

Victoria waves.

"Guys, this is Victoria. Sarah's mother."

Anthony claps his hands together.

"Well. Another thing to add to the list."

Arron sits down on the table with fizz.

"What have you two been talking about?"

"How all of us met Sarah."

Anthony chuckles.

"Where are you at? The part where you snuck her out to go get breakfast?"

"No, I just finished summarizing it."

"Aw, damn. Well, it's nice to meet you Victoria, but we have some issues currently."

Arron nods.

"This text doesn't seem like a fake. Especially with everything happening right now."

"Who could it be then?"

"If you guys want to track a number, I can help with that."

Fizz looks at her.

"Really? That'd be perfect."

"Yeah, let me just have the phone."

Anthony hands her the phone.

"Hmm. This number isn't an octoling number, so it must've come from inside the city."

"Oh, great. Who would be after you in the city?"

"Who knows? It could be anyone!"

John walks in, his head down and shoulders slumped.

"John, come here."

He walks over.

"What is it? I just wanna go to bed."

"Did you find Zoey?"

"Yeah..."

"Then...?"

"She's working for some researchers in the subway."

Anthony frowns.

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. But she isn't coming back."

He turns around and walks to his room, his door slamming shut behind him.

Arron sighs.

"Alright, and now we have that."

Fizz groans.

"Alright, how about this. You and Anthony go after Zoey, see what you can get her to say, me and Victoria will track the number."

Anthony nods and stands up.

"We'll head over there now."

Arron stands up as well, and walks torwards the door.

"Well, let's get this going."

Fizz stands up as well.

"We might as well come too, we'll get better coverage in the square."

They grab their stuff and head down to the square, discussing their plan.

"If anything goes weird, just call me."

Anthony nods and pushes open the door to the subway.

"Let's go, Arron."

Arron groans and goes inside.

Fizz turns to Victoria.

"Alright, what have we got?"

"We can track it pretty easily. We just need some time."

"Well, we have time."

"Oh look, it's the dickweed."

Fizz groans and turns around, where aulbrey is smirking at him.

"Do you mind? I'm trying to figure something out here."

"Oh, my bad. I didn't realize I was interrupting a chat with your girlfriend here."

Fizz growls.

"You better leave aulbrey. I'm not in the mood for your shit."

Aulbrey smiles and sits down at the table.

"Nah, I think I'll stick around."

Fizz glares at her.

"Fizz, I think I've got something."

Fizz looks over, and gawks.

"Nathan!? But he's in jail!"

"It seems to be coming from..."

She points it around, before aiming it at the subway.

"In there."

Fizz stares at the subway.

"He's gonna kill them."

Fizz jumps up from the table and sprints into the subway.

Victoria is about to do the same, when the subway suddenly starts moving.

"What the...?"

-segmentline-

Arron steps inside the car and looks around.

"Weird place. Come on, let's get to the front."

They walk through several cars, which are completely empty.

"Jeez, whoever was here left in a hurry."

They enter the next train car, and see Zoey sitting near a bench, holding her side.

"ZOEY!"

(I based this next part around a song. The great locomotive chase.)

They bend over to look over her.

"Someone... Invaded the train... Shot me... Get to the front..."

She passes out.

"Well, well. If it isn't the gay ones. How's it been?"

Anthony and Arron turn around and see Nathan pointing a gun at them.

Anthony growls.

"You."

"Yes, me. Now move. Let's go to the front, shall we?"

He leads them to the front.

"Here's where you die!"

He shoots the window out, and pushes Arron and Anthony out of it, landing them in front of the train.

"AHAHAHAHHAA!"

He pulls the lever forward, starting the train.

It slowly starts to move.

Anthony looks at the cart next to them.

"Get on!"

Arron jumps on, and starts pushing down on one of the sides.

Anthony follows, pushing his side down, and they start picking up speed.

The train is starting move quicker.

"We need to put some distance between us and that train!"

The train is done warming up, and it starts to pick up speed.

Fizz storms into the first car, just as the door disconnects from the platform.

"Oh fuck. He must've started the train!"

He barrels down the corridor, but stops upon seeing Zoey.

"Shit, Zoey! Are you ok?"

He lifts up Zoey's coat, seeing her bullet wound in her left side.

"That didn't hit anything important, but it needs to be bandaged."

He looks around for bandages, seeing none, he looks at his arm.

"Fuck, well. Better than nothing."

Anthony and Arron are moving as fast as possible, but the train is starting to gain on them.

Nathan grins from the controls.

"THIS IS FOR RUINING MY LIFE!"

"You did that on your own!"

Nathan growls and slams the lever even further forward.

Fizz finishes wrapping Zoey's wound, and puts a hand on his arm.

"Alright, now to-"

He gets punched in the face, knocking him down.

"YOU MONSTER!"

Fizz gets up and looks at his attacker.

Agent 8 stands over him.

"What?! I was wrapping her wound!"

"That you caused!"

She throws another punch, which is stopped by fizz.

"Look, I need to get to the front, I can't be doing this!"

Fizz shoves agent 8 aside, who grabs onto him.

"Get off of me!"

He pushes her off, but in the process, stumbles over and falls into the next train car.

Agent 8 hits the workbench, and one of the photos falls off and into her hands.

"What's this?"

She stares at the photo.

"That..."

Anthony and Arron spot a crossroads ahead.

"LEFT! LEFT!"

Arron nods and leans to the left, causing the cart to turn right.

The train keeps going forward.

Nathan slams his hand on the control box.

"FUCK! This crossroads better lead somewhere..."

Anthony laughs.

"We're all good now!"

Arron shakes his head.

"The subway is a giant circle, remember? We're gonna run into him again!"

Fizz pulls himself up and turns to agent 8, who's staring at a photo.

"Look, just stay here, please?!"

Fizz turns around and starts to walk away, but is stopped.

"I remember this photo. Zoey forced us to take it because she said she needed more than one photo of us."

Fizz slowly turns around.

"What...?"

Agent 8 looks at him, her eyes still flashing between colors. She blinks a couple of times, and her eye color settles on green. Emerald green.

"Hey, fizz."

Fizz stares in amazment.

"Sarah...?"

Agent 8 stands up and walks over to fizz, hugging him.

"You know, you could've at least waited a month after I died to get a new girlfriend."

Fizz blinks.

"Uh... Sorry?"

The trains suddenly swerves, throwing fizz and agent 8 across the room.

Anthony screams.

"I TOLD YOU WE WOULD SEE HIM AGAIN!"

Nathan laughs.

"I have you now, fuckers..."

He pushes the lever as far forward as it goes.

Fizz stands up.

"Nathan's in the control room. I have to stop him."

Agent 8 nods.

"Well, let's go then!"

Fizz smiles and grabs her hand, before running through the cars into the control room.

"NATHAN!"

Nathan turns around.

"Fizz?! Where did you come from?!"

Fizz punches him, and he slams into the control box, causing the whistle to sound. Everyone covers their ears.

"You won't survive this time!"

Nathan grabs fizz and leads him to the window, while agent 8 yells out.

"SAY GOODBYE!"

The train swerves, causing Nathan to lose his footing and fly out the window, with fizz grabbing the ledge.

"DAMN IT! THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FOOLPROOF!"

Fizz groans.

"Sarah, please, this is my bad arm..."

The wound on fizz's arm is reopened, causing ink to drip down his sleeve.

Nathan starts to climb fizz, and fizz screams in pain.

Anthony and Arron are starting to get tired, and their cart starts to slow.

"They need to stop the train..."

Arron gasps for air as he tries to keep the speed up.

Sarah grabs fizz's arm, and starts pulling him up, but Nathan pulls him back down.

"NO! I GET UP FIRST!"

Sarah growls and reaches for his hand.

"Yes!"

He grabs it, and lets go of fizz.

Sarah giggles.

"Hey, Nathan."

Nathan looks at her.

"Say hi to panda for me!"

She lets go of him, and he falls onto the tracks, only to get run over by the train a moment later.

She quickly grabs fizz's hand and pulls him up.

Fizz nods and pulls the lever back, causing the brakes on the train to screech.

Anthony cheers.

"Yes! They're stopping the train!"

Arron says nothing as he passes out on the cart.

"Arron? ...Oh no."

The cart completely stops, with the train quickly gaining.

Fizz looks on in terror.

"WE NEED TO STOP THIS THING NOW!"

Sarah looks around.

"Uh, Fizz...?"

She points to a giant pillar.

Fizz looks at it.

"If I die, tell Arron it's his fault."

Fizz pulls the pillar over to the window and pushes it topways on the tracks, causing the train to veer off the tracks and hit the wall. All of its cars start slamming into the front, causing it to roll.

The train slides down the track until it comes to a stop a few meters away from the cart.

The whistle of the brakes signals the stop of the train.

(Song ends here.)

Anthony sighs.

"Holy fuck."

He hops off the cart and looks at the train.

"No way they survived that. Damn it..."

He goes over to Arron and picks him up.

"Must've exhausted himself."

He puts Arron over his shoulder and goes to the train.

"Hello? Anyone still alive in there?"

He hears groaning, and puts Arron down to investigate.

"Who's here?"

"Ow... It's Zoey, what the hell happened?"

Anthony tries to move some of the debris aside, but can't.

"The train derailed. You're kinda stuck."

"I can see that. Uh... I'm not hurt, aside from the bullet wound, so maybe just go get help?"

"I don't know if fizz survived the crash, but Nathan was thrown under the train."

"He deserves that. Agent 8 probably went with fizz, so they're probably in the same area. Try near the front car."

Anthony nods and goes to the front car, which is on it's side.

"Fizz? Agent 8? You guys ok?"

He hears nothing, so he jumps off the top of the train and looks through the window.

"Can't see them... I'll just have to..."

He slams his body into the window, and it shatters.

He falls into the car, and looks around.

The car itself is in ruins, with anything that wasn't bolted down being destroyed or broken.

"Fizz? Agent 8?"

He hears nothing, so he advances into the car.

He sees a body slumped in the corner and goes over to it.

"Agent 8."

He moves her to the center and checks her.

"Looks like the arm is broken, and she got hit in the head, but otherwise..."

He drags her out of the train and goes back in.

He looks around the rest of the car, before turning to the other door.

"FIZZ?!"

He steps out, and looks around.

Zoey waves at him.

"Oh, hi."

Zoey laughs.

"I'm pinned under this bar. See if you can lift it?"

Anthony shrugs and grabs the bar.

"Alright. 3...2...1!"

He lifts up the bar a tiny bit, and Zoey scrambles out from below it.

"Thanks. Now, did you find fizz and agent 8?"

"I found the agent, but I don't where where fizz ended up."

"Alright, let's split up. You take this car, and I'll take the car behind that."

Anthony nods and climbs into the car.

He moves through the broken glass and pushes a few broken tables aside.

He pushes a table aside to find fizz behind it, leaking ink everywhere.

Anthony gasps and picks him up.

"Oh no."

He runs out of the car and sets him down.

"Zoey! I found him!"

Zoey runs over.

"Oh, that's not good. Looks like he was cut by a ton of glass."

Zoey picks him up and grabs a wad of bandages out of her pocket.

"Found these in that other car, figured we would need them."

She starts patching up his wounds as best as possible.

"He might have lost too much ink..."

Anthony shakes his head.

"Fizz wouldnt die like that, I always imagined him dying in like an explosion or something."

Zoey chuckles.

She sets fizz back down.

"I can't tell if any internal damage was sustained."

"Well, let's get him and agent 8 to the hospital."

Anthony gets back on top of the train and grabs Arron.

"Alright, let's get going."

-segmentline-

"I thought I made it clear, I hate you."

Nathan backs up, and panda moves closer.

"We can talk about this, right...?"

Panda growls.

"No. You lost that chance when you killed me."

Karl chuckles.

"Figures. You get out of jail and the first thing you try to do is kill them."

"Yeah, why can't you just sit here and hold a grudge like the rest of us?"

Nathan groans.

"Because they are a bunch of idiots, and I didn't have anything else to plan after that."

Marshall shakes his head.

"Yeah, well, who killed you? Because if it was Fizz, you can join the club."

Tori rolls her eyes.

"It wasn't fizz, it was that stupid agent."

Karl coughs.

"That was Sarah."

Nathan stomps his foot on the ground.

"No fucking wonder."

Tori looks at the slumped body of Sarah.

"What do we do with that exactly?"

Panda shrugs.

"Leave it. Sarah will be back at some point."

Nathan tries to slip by panda, but gets punched to the ground.

"Don't think I forget about you."

Nathan groans.

Karl laughs.

"Well, panda's gonna be busy, so what do you guys want to do now?"

Marshall shrugs.

"See if Fizz ends up dying. Then we'll have panda and fizz attacking Nathan."

"For once, I hope he survives..."

Panda kicks Nathan.

-segmentline-

They arrive at the hospital, and the doctor once again takes them in.

"Is there only like one doctor here, or...?"

The doctor chuckles.

"Sometimes it feels like it. No, I'm the doctor for the first floor."

They lay fizz and agent 8 down on the bed, and the doctor looks over them both.

"Alright, well, I'm gonna need and do some Xrays and such. You guys need to leave the room for this."

They nods and exit.

Arron groans.

"Ah, the sleepy head woke up."

Anthony puts Arron down,

"Am I dead? All I remember is a train speeding at us..."

"No, fizz threw some pillar on the track and caused the train to crash."

Arron blinks.

"Fizz threw a pillar, which was just on this SUBWAY TRAIN, out of the front window, and caused A SUBWAY, to crash?"

"Yes."

"Ah, alright, I see no problem with that."

Zoey rolls her eyes.

"You guys can go home if you want, I'm sure Arron could use some rest."

Arron yawns.

"I agree."

Anthony puts his hand around Arron.

"Alright, I'll get you home."

They leave, and the doctor taps Zoey's shoulder.

"C'mon, I have to show you something."

He leads her into a room, with two sheets hanging up.

"So, fizz's X-ray shows he had a small amount of internal bleeding, nothing too bad, but he also has a hell of a concussion. Now, this is what I'm confused about."

He points at agent 8's sheet.

"She has a broken arm, and a large concussion as well, but she's already perfectly fine. The moment I took the X-ray, her arm fixed itself and the concussion went away."

Zoey looks at the doctor.

"How is that possible?"

"How should I know? Just be glad she's all good now."

Zoey goes over to the room and looks inside, where agent 8 is standing over fizz.

Zoey walks over to her.

"You ok?"

"You should ask that about him."

"He's fine, at least that's what the doctor told me."

Agent 8 sighs.

"Good."

She turns to Zoey.

"By the way, is there any reason my injuries are just fixed?"

"You must have a better reconstruction system then most others."

Zoey looks at her eyes.

"Oh, it settled on a color! That's a... Really nice shade of green."

Agent 8 chuckles.

"You know, he said the same thing."

Zoey frowns.

"What, on the train? When did he have time-"

She stops and facepalms.

"It's you, isn't it?"

"In the flesh! Did you miss me?"

Zoey laughs.

"Of all the tentacles we put in you, of course yours would take control."

Sarah shrugs.

"You should thank hopper. He had a small part in this."

Zoey frowns.

"Hopper? What did he do?"

"He saved one of my tentacles and put it into the bank you guys had in that subway."

Zoey blinks.

"How the fuck did he- never mind, I don't care. Good to have you back, for the moment."

Sarah frowns.

"What do you mean?"

"That body is unstable. We predicted that it would only last a couple of months."

"Oh..."

"I guess we should move to try and fix that, no way we're losing you again."

Sarah nods and turns back to fizz.

"I take it he's gonna be here a while?"

"Oh, for sure. You remember how to get to your house, right?"

Sarah blinks.

"Uh...no."

Zoey rolls her eyes.

"I'll take you."

Sarah smiles.

Fizz groans.

"Ow... Sharp pains everywhere."

Sarah turns around and looks at him.

"Fizz!"

Fizz looks at her, and grins.

"Oh good, no one died this time."

He groans again.

"Well, that's debatable."

Sarah chuckles.

"You're fine, you just need some rest."

Fizz nods and turns over.

"Alright Zoey, take me home."

Zoey gestures out the door.

"Let's get moving."


	12. I think it's date night

( I love the train scene so much. I just do. I was making train puns for so long and I finally got to post it weeeeee, anyway it's an aftermath chapter and all that so not much happens. Things will pick up again soon don't worry. )

-chapterstart-

"I think that went well."

Rece walks out of the training range, followed by the rest.

Zodiac wipes some of the ink off his head.

"Yeah, but you still need some practice. For someone who hasn't touched an inkbrush for years, you got back into it fast."

Joey nods.

"I'm sure we could've gotten more practice in if Aurie didn't insist on fucking zodiac halfway through the session."

"Sex always comes first. Besides, he's gonna be great, I can tell."

Rece shrugs.

"Maybe. This thing is heavier than I remember."

"We could get you a different model, they got quite a few."

Joey catches up to Rece and grabs his brush.

"Oh, this is an octo-brush. No wonder it's heavy."

Aurie snickers.

"I figured it was appropriate."

Joey rolls his eyes.

"We'll get you a regular inkbrush tomorrow."

Rece nods and takes the octo-brush back.

Aurie leans into Rece.

"In the meantime, how about you and I go out tonight? Not to like a bar, I mean a date sort of place, you know?"

Rece nods.

"Sure. I don't know too much about you anyway."

Aurie smiles.

Zodiac looks over to the Cafè.

"Yo! The subway car is gone!"

Everyone looks over.

"Woah. What do you think happened?"

Rece shrugs.

"I'm certain it has something to do with fizz."

Just then, Anthony leads Arron out of the hospital, keeping him upright.

"Anthony! What Happened?"

"Long story. Look, I need to get Arron home, of you want to know what happened, talk to Zoey. She's in the hospital."

Arron sighs.

"Can we please get moving?"

Anthony nods and starts leading him again.

Rece looks torwards the hospital.

"How about you guys go home, and I'll see what's going on?"

Zodiac laughs.

"Not happening. If something bad happened, I wanna hear it."

Joey and Aurie both nod.

Rece rolls his eyes.

"Alright, c'mon."

They ask for the room, and walk in.

Zoey is inches from Rece.

Zoey backs up in suprise, and stumbles a bit.

"Holy shit, Rece! Don't fucking scare me like that!"

"Sorry!"

Everyone else walks in.

"Alright, so what the hell happened?"

Zoey groans.

"I don't know, all I know is that the subway derailed and almost killed us."

Rece looks behind her and sees fizz on the bed.

"Is he ok?"

"He's fine, just got a bodyful of glass."

Rece walks over to the bed.

Agent 8 waves.

"Who are you?"

"Well, technically I'm Sarah, but you can call me agent 8."

Rece blinks.

"Wait, so, are you the Sarah I know?"

"Yes."

Rece grabs her into a hug, and Sarah is startled, but returns it.

"Don't die again, please? Fizz really doesn't need that."

"I don't plan to."

Fizz groans.

"How am I supposed to get any sleep if you fuckers are being sentimental? Get the hell out of here."

Rece laughs.

"Alright fine, but when you recover, you're telling us what happened."

Fizz mumbles something.

Rece rolls his eyes.

"Alright guys, let's get out of here."

They all go to the lobby.

"I'm taking Sarah home."

Rece nods.

"Aurie, where's this place you wanted to take me?"

"Across town. It's quite a walk."

"Well, let's go then."

-segmentline-

Zoey opens the door to fizz's apartment, and sees John laying on the table.

"Seriously, John?"

John sits up, and shrugs.

"I've got nothing better to do. Anyway, what are you doing here?"

"I was taking Sarah home."

Agent 8 walks in, and John frowns.

"That's not Sarah, Sarah's cuter than her."

Agent 8 frowns.

"Aw, cmon! I think I look nice in this body!"

Zoey goes over and pushes John off the table, and sits on the couch.

"It IS Sarah. She took control of this 'fake' body."

John stands up.

"How? That doesn't even make sense."

"It- look, I'm not gonna bother explaining it, it's too complicated."

Agent 8 sits down.

"He cleaned this place, how nice."

Zoey looks around.

"Yeah, there does seem to be less stuff around."

Sarah picks up one of the boxes on the floor.

"Looks like he was interrupted."

John nods.

"Some octoling showed up out of nowhere. She was talking to fizz and his friends when I came back."

Victoria walks through the door.

"Finally, forgot where this place was for a bit."

She looks at everyone.

"Oh, uh, hi?"

Agent 8 sprints over and hugs Victoria.

"Yes, hello, who are you exactly?"

Agent 8 lets go, and moves back a bit.

"Right, sorry. It's me! Sarah!"

Victoria frowns.

"That's not right..."

Zoey groans.

"It's Sarah, alright?! I'm not explaining all of this shit."

Victoria puts a hand to her forehead.

"I haven't even been here for half a day and I'm already overwhelmed."

Agent 8 shrugs.

"You get used to it. What are you doing here anyway?"

"I was looking for you, when your 'friend' said you died."

"Yeah, I did, but Zoey kinda fixed it."

Victoria nods torwards Zoey.

"Thanks."

Zoey nods back.

"Well, I was gonna take you back, but that's probably not gonna fly, is it?"

Sarah shakes her head.

"I'm not going back, not while I still have friends here."

Victoria nods.

"Well, then I'll be on my way. Knowing you're safe is good enough for me."

She gives Sarah a hug and leaves again.

Sarah sighs.

"I didn't think she cared..."

"Why wouldn't she?"

"I dunno, I was just here for two years... Never mind."

Zoey comes over and kisses John.

"Now, they're gonna have to fix the train before we start research again, so what do you want to do?"

"Where's Jamie exactly?"

Zoey blinks.

"On the train that didn't derail. She's being looked after by the team down there."

John nods.

"In that case, let's go out! We haven't done that in almost a year."

Zoey smiles and pulls him torwards the door.

"I know a place."

They leave, and Sarah looks around.

"Now, I know you're all watching me up there, so, how'd you like my one liner, Nathan?"

( He says fuck you. )

Sarah laughs.

"Well, I think I'm gonna move this stuff out. If fizz didn't want it, I don't want it either."

She picks up a box.

-segmentline-

Aurie pushes open a door.

"You call clubs date places?"

Aurie smiles.

"Yeah! It's one of the only places with side rooms for couples!"

"Oh?"

Rece looks around, and sees a door on the other side of the room labeled "couple's cave".

"Ah, so you want to have sex at some point. Got it."

They walk to the dance floor, and Aurie grins at Rece.

"Try and keep up, alright?"

She starts dancing a bit, more just moving her hips around.

Rece chuckles.

"Here, give me a second."

He walks over to the DJ booth.

"Hey, mind playing 'delight' for me?"

The DJ grins.

"I got you."

Rece walks back over to Aurie.

"No, how about you keep up with me?"

He starts doing some fancy footwork, mostly in place.

Aurie gawks.

"How the hell?!"

Some people around him back up a bit.

"Oh, you just wait."

He starts moving faster and faster, until he's almost throwing his legs out.

Then the beat drops.

The people around him start cheering, and Aurie studies his feet for a moment before joining in and staying with him for the most part.

"Wow, you learn fast!"

"It's part of the package!"

They dance the whole song, changing the style of the dance sometimes, with the crowd cheering them on.

The song ends, and Rece takes a bow, before Aurie grabs him in a hug.

"Where did you learn to dance like that?!"

"I taught myself. I used to have a case of relics I would dance to."

"Alright, well, you have no idea how much that turned me on."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll have some idea when you drag me through that door over there."

Aurie grins and drags Rece across the floor and into the next room.

-segmentline-

Aulbrey walks back into the building, setting her bag down.

"He better have survived that subway, it would be a shame to waste all this work just for a damn train to do it for me."

Zack walks out of the other room.

"I got the generator. It better be enough, I almost died getting it."

Aulbrey grins and goes over the machine.

"Here we go."

She pulls a lever on the side, and the machine roars to life.

"YES! YES!"

Zack sighs.

"Good, now let's get this over with."

"No, we gotta wait until fizz is out of the hospital. It's no fun if he doesn't put up a fight."

Zack groans.

"Can't we just kill him now? I'm tired of this garbage."

"Give it time. 2 days. Max."

Zack sighs.

"Whatever, I'm taking a nap."

He walks off, and aulbrey gets in the machine.

"Alright, so, what do I call this thing?"

She messes with the controls and the machine gets up.

"I styled it like those weird old movies where the robots take over the planet, so maybe..."

She lifts it's arm, followed by it's other.

"The iron giant...? That sounds good, but it's probably been used before. Ah, who the fuck cares, I could call it the fizz killer if I wanted."

She makes the machine sit again, and she hops out of the chest.

"This is gonna be fun."

-segmentline-

"Now this, this is not what I was expecting."

Zoey laughs and drags him to the bar.

"What, you think I would want to go out to some fancy restaurant after being cooped up in a subway for a week?"

"I see your point."

The bartender comes over and they order their drinks.

"So if they just wanted to work with you, why'd they kidnap you?"

"Because the project is a secret, so they had to make sure no one else could hear."

John sighs.

"I'm not sure it worked out very well for them in the end, did it?"

"No, but we can recover. The living quarters are still there, and the platform could make a good research center."

"So, you're going back?"

"Of course."

John groans.

"Could I at least come back with you? It's depressing having to be by myself here."

"I guess, it's a bit late to deny anything with you. I'll have to ask though."

The drinks slide down from the other side of the counter.

"So, what have you been doing? Well, aside from looking for me."

"Not much to be honest. I got shot by the guy who bombed that concert, and I was there when Karl was first poisoned..."

He blinks.

"Oh, uh..."

"No, I know. At least fizz gave him what he wanted."

"At least we have Sarah back."

Zoey frowns and downs her drink.

"Easy there, you don't want to get too hammered."

"Yeah I do."

John rolls his eyes.

"You should get drunk too, I'm sure you need to let loose some."

John looks at his drink, and gulps it down.

"You are sooooo right."

John grabs Zoey and kisses her, which Zoey gladly reciprocates.

"Mmm, glad to see I was missed."

"I spent a week looking for you, of course I fucking missed you!"

They kiss again, and the bartender chuckles and slides two more drinks down.

"On the house. You two are gonna be having a nice night I'm sure."

John grins and downs his drink.

"So, Zoey, how long do we plan to stay here?"

"Once we feel properly wasted, we leave."

"Sounds good to me!"

-segmentline-

Rece yawns.

"You really pulled it all out of me that time."

Aurie is laying on the floor, still naked.

"Mmm, just how I like it."

Rece tosses her clothes over.

"Yeah, well, now I'm tired. So how about we head home?"

Aurie stands up.

"Oh, we can go home, but I'm not putting any clothes on."

Rece shrugs.

"Alright, but if you get arrested for public nudity, it's your money that's going down the drain."

"Please. They'll be too busy staring."

Rece gets up, and kisses Aurie.

"If I run into any walls, don't laugh. You're too distracting for your own good."

Aurie laughs, grabs her clothes, and pushes Rece out of the door and across the club.

As predicted, several squids stop and stare as they walk out.

"So, what will happen when you get older?"

"In what sense?"

"Like your sex obsession and your body."

Aurie grins.

"Octolings only visably age in octo-form. I'm at my peak right now!"

"Well, how about your stamina?"

"Yes, that will change. But so will yours, so it's not a big deal."

"PUT SOME CLOTHES ON!"

Aurie looks torwards the squid who said that.

"What? I know, a girl's body is a rarity for you, but please try and contain yourself."

The man roars and charges Aurie, only to get punched to the ground by Rece.

"Back the hell off, she's not hurting anyone, I am."

The man groans.

Aurie starts walking again.

"So... You think you can go for another round?"

Rece laughs.

"You took everything out of me back there. Take one of the other two and let me recover."

Aurie pouts.

"Aww. Alright, who went last time...?"

"Zodiac."

"Ah, alright. Joey it is then."

They hear a whistle from behind them, and Aurie poses.

Whoever it was cheers.

Aurie chuckles.

"You know, I should do this more often!"

Rece collides with a wall, and Aurie bursts out laughing.

"I thought I told you not to laugh!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it's just too funny."

Rece groans and moves away from the building, and zodiac opens the door.

"Oh-"

Rece bursts out laughing.

"Now I see why it's funny!"

Aurie nods and pushes past zodiac.

"Why are you naked?"

"Because I didn't feel like wearing clothes, and I was planning to fuck Joey when I came back anyway."

Joey chuckles from the kitchen.

"Well, I was planning to go to bed, but for you..."

Aurie grabs him and drags him off.

Zodiac shrugs and turns to Rece.

"So it went well?"

"We danced for about 7 minutes and then she dragged me off to have sex for an hour."

"Sounds like a good night."

"Oh, it was."

-segmentline-

Hopper is moving some stuff around.

"Her organization is fucking ridiculous..."

He looks over to octoling, who's sleeping on nothing.

"We need a bed for this place."

He goes back to moving stuff, until he suddenly stands up straight.

"I thought I told you: as long as I was in Splatoon fanfics, you were banned from attacking me."

"I can't wait forever. You're only stalling at this point."

"Get. Out."

He hears a huff, followed by a scraping sound.

He sighs.

"She's right. But I can't have her attacking me here."

He goes over to the octoling.

"Not with you here. And it's not any better to have her attacking me around fizz."

Octoling mumbles something.

"You don't have to pretend to be asleep anymore."

Octoling opens one of her eyes.

"How'd you know?"

"You were breathing quickly."

She rolls her eyes and looks around.

"We do need a bed though. At the very least, something other than the one desk."

Hopper sits down.

"Do you know where Callie and Marie are?"

"I think they went back to observe her fractured spirit. Something about seeing how it would've played out without your intervention."

Hopper nods.

"Do you not like having me around?"

Hopper frowns.

"What? Why?"

"You just seem so unhappy all the time..."

"That's not your fault. You're the best part of all this Splatoon stuff anyway."

She smiles and sits up.

"So, why are you so upset then?"

"I miss everything. I mean, I have you, Marie, and Callie, so that's something. But... Everything else. You know?"

"Homesick, then?"

"I guess."

Octoling gives hopper a hug.

"I'm sure we'll get back soon. I doubt this fanfic will last much longer."

(That's what you think.)

Octoling frowns.

"Why? Am I wrong?"

(You might be. In fact, you probably are. But still.)

"Then get the fuck outa here."

(Wow, rude. I thought I wrote you better than that.)

Hopper frowns.

"You didn't write her though, I did."

(I'm writing her now, aren't I? Here, I'll prove it.)

Octoling throws herself onto hopper and kisses him.

Hopper pushes her off.

"Alright, no."

He snaps his fingers.

"Go focus on someone else for a bit!"

-S3GM3NTLIN3-

Woah. That felt weird. Where am I?

Uh... Oh.

Anthony yawns and gets out of bed.

He walks to the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water.

"This has been something."

"Tell me about it."

Anthony swings around, and someone is sitting on the couch.

"Who are you?"

The man gets up.

"Time. Or at least, that's what everyone calls me."

"Why do you look like a cybernetic hopper?"

"Because me and him were both made and based off of the same person."

"So... Why are you here?"

Just as he says that, hopper trudges in and rubs his eyes.

"One more morning call and I'll fuckin kill you, Time..."

"This is my only free time. Now, do you have the reports of the anomaly?"

"Yeah..."

Hopper pulls out some papers and gives them to Time.

"It looks stable, but it's getting a bit close to step-down."

"I'm sure step-down won't even notice."

"Yeah, his depth perception doesn't help that either."

Time laughs.

"I thought we agreed no jokes like that!"

"Eh, one every once in a while."

Time turns his hand into a oddly shaped gun.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do. Keep doing what you're doing."

He shoots the gun, which creates a portal. He walks through it.

Hopper looks at Anthony.

"Hey."

Anthony blinks.

"So are you guys the same person as fizz?"

"In a way. We come from different sections of the real me's imagination."

"How does that work?"

"It doesn't, it only works in writing."

Hopper sits down.

"Time came first, athough there are rumors that two came before him."

"How long have you been around?"

"Not long. Around a year. The most recent me is inkling me, who was created during the war."

"Inkling you? You mean fizz?"

"No, fizz is his own thing. This me is just an inkling."

"Wait, war? With what?"

Hopper shudders.

"Look. That's not important. The point is, we all have different jobs. Time looks over universes as a whole, I look at written fiction, that sort of thing."

"Why is he named Time?"

"Because the real me is bad at names and can't bring himself to change what his 7th grade self thought up."

Hopper stands up.

"Well, that's enough exposition. Everyone reading this is probably rolling their eyes right now."

He snaps his fingers and disappears.

Anthony shrugs and turns the TV on.

"The more you try and understand, the more you realize your questions will never get answered."

He drinks his water.


	13. Couples day, I guess

( time for things to pick back up again, slightly, not really, it's basically just another kind of romance chapter. Next chapter is an abrubt pick up though, so the sooner we get to it the better.

-chapterstart-

Sarah rolls over.

"Oh, that's right."

She sighs and gets out of bed.

"Being in this body is such a drag. I wish I could get my old body back."

She hears some music.

"Your love was handmade for somebody like me..."

She raises an eyebrow and goes down the hall.

Zoey is passed out half dressed on the floor, with John sitting on the couch with no pants.

She clears her throat.

"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!"

John snaps awake.

"AH!"

Zoey groans.

"Sarah..."

"Don't Sarah me! You two need your own place."

John grabs his pants, and Zoey stands up.

"We can't go back to the outskirts."

"Then go live in Karl's apartment. I imagine it's going to be empty for quite some time."

Zoey stands up and turns off the music.

"That's not a bad idea actually."

John yawns.

"Where is this apartment?"

"Couple of blocks away. It's closer to the subway than here."

Zoey nods.

"If we move in there, I can come back at night instead of staying in the subway."

Sarah throws the clothes that were on floor at Zoey.

"Yeah, now put some fucking clothes on."

Zoey frowns.

"Didn't you used to do this kind of thing all the time?"

"It's a bit different when it's not me and fizz!"

John stands up and stumbles before falling back down.

"Oooh... That's a headache."

Zoey giggles.

"Drinking that much will do that to you. Now c'mon, we should probably go move what little stuff we have into the new place."

John stands up again.

"Are you sure Callie won't mind?"

"She's trying to recover in Octo canyon right now, and I feel like she might move back in with Marie."

John shrugs.

"Alright. Let's go, I guess."

The leave, and Sarah sits down.

"Hmm."

She gets back up, goes to the stereo, and looks through it.

"Here we go."

A guitar riff penetrates the room, and Sarah shivers.

"Ahhhhh, if there's one thing that place needs, it's music!"

She listens to a few songs, before turning the stereo off.

"Wait, I don't remember this song..."

She turns the stereo back on and starts the song.

"Why does he have this on here? I've never heard him listen to metal..."

She looks through the music list some more and finds some more songs like it.

"When did he get these?"

"A couple days after you died. I dunno, they just sounded good."

Sarah turns around and sees fizz stretching in the doorway.

"I'm all good now. Turns out glass cuts dont last very long."

Sarah tackles fizz in a hug, who groans.

"That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt!"

Sarah backs up immediately.

"Sorry!"

"No, it's fine. Now, I want to know what it feels like to be dead."

Sarah frowns.

"Well, you end up in this empty place, and your injuries are the same as when you died. Everyone else is there too!"

"How's Karl and panda?"

"Same as always really. Oh, we can also watch you guys."

Fizz looks around before waving.

"That's a bit creepy."

Sarah shrugs.

"It's like reading a story, almost. We only watch what's interesting."

"So, they're watching right now then?"

"Yes. Also, there's this girl up there who hates you immensely."

Fizz chuckles.

"It's Tori, isn't it? Hey, complain all you want, but you don't fuck with me. As I'm sure you've noticed."

(She says she hates you.)

"Of course she does. Now, where did Zoey and John go?"

"They went to go live in Karl's old apartment because I didn't feel like having them around."

Fizz frowns.

"That's somewhat rude of you. But still, at least it's back to just us."

Sarah grins and brings fizz in for a kiss.

"You have no idea how much I missed you."

Sarah leads him over to the couch and lays him down.

"I want to lay down with you. Just some relaxation."

Fizz nods.

"Be careful, these cuts are sensitive."

Sarah gets on the couch and moves herself into place.

"Hey."

Fizz chuckles and pulls her closer. He starts messing with her tentacles.

She sighs.

"Mmmm... You know, I tried to get panda to do this, but he didn't do it as well as you."

Fizz smiles.

"It's kind of a weird thing to do. But it's so nice to feel you relax."

She moves down a bit and kisses fizz again.

They won't be moving for a while.

-segmentline-

"We are spending the day together."

Arron slowly opens his eyes.

"Anthony? Why are you up this early?"

"I dunno, I felt rested. Now; as I said, we are spending the day together."

"Don't we already do that?"

"No, I mean without TV. Why don't we just stay in our room here and talk?"

Arron shrugs.

"Alright... But what brought this up? You usually don't like to be so intimate. Unless it's sex."

Anthony quickly pulls Arron in for a kiss.

"Arron, we almost died yesterday. I just want to spend a day with you, alright?"

Arron smiles.

"Ok. I get it. What do you want to talk about?"

"Hm. How about some stories from our past?"

Arron frowns.

"My life wasn't very interesting before I met you... But there was the time I had a girlfriend. Back in my early high school days.

"You weren't gay in high school?"

"I wasn't gay until you fucked me."

Anthony laughs.

"Oh, alright then."

"So... I think it was like January."

(This part of the story has been removed due to potential spoilers for a prequel.)

"Ouch. That's rough, sorry dude."

Arron shrugs.

"It was probably for the best anyway. Now, how about you?"

Anthony smiles.

"How about I tell you how I declared myself gay? That's quite a story."

"Go ahead."

"Alright, well, it was the second year of high school."

(Removed. Hehehe. Oh, also, the school system in this world is two years less than ours. So only two years of high school. Why did I do that? Who knows.)

Arron laughs.

"I should've known. You always go big."

"You know it!"

Anthony pulls Arron in again, and they make out for a while.

"I love you so much."

Arron responds by pulling him back into the kiss.

What is this, couples day? All this fluff is padding out the story too much. Remember when this story had direction? Like, there was an overarching plot and such? I'm upset.

(How dare you. I mean, you're totally correct, but how dare you.)

"Hey, can you two shut up? We're trying to make out here."

Uhh? I'm gonna go narrate over something else now.

-segmentline-

Rece wakes up and stretches himself across his bed.

"Hi~"

Rece jumps and rolls over.

"Aurie! Don't do that!"

Aurie smiles and kisses Rece, while moving closer.

"Can I do that?"

"Yes..."

She gets on top of him and kisses him again.

"So..."

Rece rolls his eyes.

"Fine, but I'm going to sleep again afterwards."

Joey is watching zodiac cook something, when they hear moaning.

"Well, guess they won't be coming to breakfast."

Zodiac scoffs.

"Yeah, or lunch."

He takes the pancakes off the pan and shoves a couple onto two plates.

"Now we've got a lot of leftover pancakes."

"So. What are we doing today?"

"Nothing, probably. It just seems like one of those days, you know?"

"I guess. I still wanna play some turf wars though."

"We can go by ourselves later. They'll probably both pass out since they're doing it so early, so we can go after that."

As he says that, a loud moan comes from the other room, followed by silence.

"That sounded like she just finished."

Joey nods.

"Rece might not be done yet, give it a minute."

Sure enough, the moaning starts again.

Zodiac sighs.

"Well, you're right. What weapon should I use this time? The nosslenose was just not working for me."

"Try the aerospray then, it's got a better fire rate."

"Golden, neo, like you gotta give me the sub category dude."

"I dunno, which ever one has the baller as the special."

"I can survive without a baller."

"No you can't. But you can try the one with the tenta missiles if you're that confident."

Zodiac rolls his eyes and gets up to place his plate in the sink.

"It's been quite a interesting couple of years, huh?"

Joey nods.

"I'm happy. Certainly more happy then when we were hanging around Nathan."

"Well, that's obvious. But what do you think will happen when the relations between us and the octoling's improve?"

"That... Would be interesting."

Another loud moan is heard.

"Think that's it?"

"Maybe..."

The moaning starts again.

"Wow, they are just going at it today."

"I mean, it is Aurie."

Joey laughs and gets up to put his plate in the sink.

"Well, how about we just get going? They're gonna be here a while."

"Yeah... I'll grab my stuff."

Zodiac walks into his bedroom and comes back out with two backpacks and an aerospray.

"Here you go."

He tosses one of the packs to Joey.

"I threw a slosher in there, enjoy."

"Oh, you bitch!"

Joey pulls out the slosher, before groaning.

"It's the basic one too! Fuck you dude!"

Zodiac chuckles.

"Well, come on. Let's get going."

-segmentline-

"Pearl...?"

Pearl shoves some papers around and throws her splat duelies across the room.

"WHAT IS THIS?"

Marina scoots backwards.

"Uh... Just some souvenirs from my... Days in the army..."

"Bugs. You're calling bugs SOUVENIRS?!"

"Yes...?"

Pearl groans.

"Alright, look. I don't care what you were using these for. Just... Please. Tell me this won't be trouble."

Marina nods.

"This won't be trouble. I was only using them to keep tabs on things we said."

"Why- no. No."

She sits down and smashes one of the bugs.

"Marina, how about you go back to the apartment, and I'll meet you there."

Marina nods and walks off.

Pearl giggles a bit.

"Damn it marina... Why..."

She gets up and grabs her duelies off the floor.

"She better not be lying. If the octarians attack or something..."

Pearl sighs.

"No, I trust her."

She nods, and stands up.

"I trust her."

Marina closes the door to the apartment.

"Fuck!"

She kicks a wall.

"Ow."

She starts crying, and she goes to sit down on the couch.

"She's not gonna trust me anymore!"

She picks up a throw pillow and chucks it across the room.

"Well, at least I can earn her trust back."

She sighs.

"The octarians won't attack, and everything will be fine!"

She nods and stands up.

"I'm gonna suprise her. But with what...?"

She looks around a bit.

"I could try and cook something... No, that's not happening. Ooh!"

She sprints into her bedroom and pulls out one of her and Pearl's albums.

"She always said we could've done more work on the mixing..."

She smiles and goes into their in home studio.

"I've got maybe half an hour at best."

She cracks her knuckles.

"Let's make some... Better music!"

Pearl straightens up the last of the papers in the studio.

"We just need to talk. I'm sure she was telling the truth."

She looks around the room, nods, and leaves.

She sighs.

"She's too cute to be a spy."

She smiles.

"Let's see what she says."

She knocks on the door, hears some noises, and then running.

Marina opens the door with her headphones half off.

"Pearl! Come in!"

"Hey?"

Marina grabs Pearl and pulls in.

"Woah! Marina, calm down-"

"I have something to show you!"

Pearl frowns.

"Uh, ok, but-"

Marina sprints off, and comes back a minute later with a CD.

"I only got to the first few songs, but..."

She puts the CD in the stereo, and hits play.

They listen to the songs Marina remixed, and then she turns off the stereo.

"Do you like them? I kinda rushed, but it sounded good when I was listening to it..."

Pearl gets up and walks over to Marina.

She grabs her in a hug.

"That was amazing. Thank you."

Pearl breaks off, and grabs the CD.

"Should we finish the rest of these? I want to redo some vocals."

"Oh, yeah, sure!"

"Something on your mind?"

Marina sits on the couch.

"Can we cuddle?"

Pearl giggles before going over to the couch and pushing marina down.

"Sure. We're done for the day anyway."

Pearl lays on top of marina and grabs a blanket.

"You wanna watch anything?"

"Nah."

Pearl moves a bit and gives marina a kiss.

Marina smiles.

"I'm sorry about all this. I promise you, this won't be trouble."

"I believe you."

Pearl puts her head down.

"Now let's just enjoy the moment, alright?"

-segmentline-

Aulbrey looks through the newspaper.

"What kind of headlines..."

Zack takes a peek at the paper.

"Turf war rules called out after octoling flashes opponent in game? What in the hell?"

"That's kinda amazing honestly. Never thought of doing that."

Zack stares at her.

Aulbrey smiles.

"I'm joking. But, how long have octolings been in inkopolis? I know more showed up after Marina..."

"Quite a few were hiding out before Marina. Sarah, fizz's girlfriend, was an octoling. And I think another couple were friends with him."

"Fizz has a girlfriend?"

"HAD a girlfriend. She died around a week ago."

"How do you know this?"

"You told me to keep an eye on him."

"On his location. Not him. That's just creepy."

"We're trying to kill him, why the hell are we worried about creeping him out?"

Aulbrey shrugs and gets up.

"Also, you've seen all the octarian activity, right?"

Zack nods.

"Yeah, I think me stealing the generator right after Octavio was defeated kinda pissed them off."

"Well, they might attack inkopolis."

"We should be fine. They have no way of knowing where we are."

Aulbrey nods.

"We should stall the attack, just in case. We dont want to be attacking fizz and then the entire fucking octarian army jumps the machine."

Zack shrugs.

"If you say so. But If we go now, he's still injured. So he won't put up much of a fight. Plus, he seems to be distracted with this new octoling he looks to be close to. I think her name is agent 8?"

"Agent 8? Well, whatever. He can spend what little time he has left with her."

"Also, did you hear about the subway incident?"

"Yeah, fizz was on that train. It's how he got injured. Some lunatic started the damn thing up and nearly killed like 6 squids."

"Yeah, it's all over the news. According to the reporter, the train was a hangout for some sort of gang, when a rival gang tried to kill them."

"That's a bunch of bullshit. I don't know what happened down there, but it certainly had something to do with someone wanting to kill fizz."

"What makes you say that?"

"Fizz was the most injured. Not only that, but I was there when he ran into the train."

"If you say so. I'm gonna go out for a bit, since we're just waiting here.".

Aulbrey waves him off and grabs the newspaper again.

Zack rolls his eyes and walks out the door.

"Alright, so... Where should I go?"

He thinks for a moment and shrugs.

"Eh. I could use a drink."

He starts off. He soon turns into a corner and bumps into a couple of guys.

"Oh! I'm sorry, didn't see you guys."

"No, it's fine. This idiot never looks where he's going."

"Hey!"

Zack laughs.

"Where are you two headed?"

"Turf wars. Figured we would play some matches."

"Well, have fun. I'm going to the bar."

He waves to the inklings and walks down the street to the bar.

He pushes the doors open and goes to the counter.

"One margarita please."

"This early?"

He shrugs.

"It's never too early for margaritas."

The bartender nods.

"Fair point."

He gets his drink and chugs it down.

"Rough day?"

"No, just felt like a drink."

The bartender shrugs.

Zack motions for another drink, which the bartender picks up on.

"It's been a weird couple of days, huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"With the great zapfish disappearing and then reappearing again, and now this whole thing with the subway."

The bartender nods.

"I suppose. But it's not that big of a deal."

Zack stands up and puts some credits on the counter.

"Thanks for the drink, enjoy the rest of your day."

The bartender waves.

Zack walks out of the bar.

"C'mon, this way!"

Zack frowns and looks across the street, where an inkling is being dragged down the street.

"Calm down! Where are you taking me?"

"Shhh!"

Zack grins.

"Looks like fizz is on another adventure over there. Maybe..."

He walks down the street, following sarah and fizz.

"This should be interesting."

-segmentline-

Sarah snuggles more into fizz, who streches out a bit.

"This is nice."

Sarah giggles.

"Maybe we should go somewhere else then?"

"What...? Like where?"

"Oh, I know a place...!"

Sarah jumps up and grabs fizz's hand.

"Oh boy, this cannot end well."

Sarah pulls him off the couch and drags him out the door.

"Woah, Sarah, give me a second!"

She smiles and starts running, with fizz stumbling behind him.

"C'mon, this way!"

"Calm down! Where are you taking me?"

"Shh!"

Sarah quickly turns down another street and stops.

Fizz catches his breath and looks around.

"Alright, why did you take me here?"

Sarah points at a building at the end of the street.

"I'm hungry."

Fizz takes a look at the building.

"Ah. So you're feeling nostalgic then?"

"You do remember what day it is, right?"

Fizz frowns and thinks for a moment.

"Oh. OOOOH."

Fizz grabs Sarah for a kiss.

"It's been a week, you know?"

"You're lucky I remembered then!"

Sarah pulls fizz down the street and into the diner.

The waiter greets them and shows them to a table.

"The usual for fizz, I'm assuming?"

Fizz nods.

"And for you, ma'am?"

"It's me. Sarah."

The waiter steps back and looks at her.

"Uhh... Alright. I'll be back with your orders."

Sarah sighs.

"Can we figure out a way to get me back into my old body? Having to tell everybody I'm still Sarah is annoying."

"We could ask Zoey, but I doubt she would know anything about that."

Sarah shrugs.

"Worth a shot."

The waiter comes back and sets some drinks down.

"If you don't mind me asking, why do you look completely different?"

"I died."

The waiter looks confused.

"Wait- then-"

"Don't think about it too much. Now, if you don't mind...?"

The waiter nods and motions to the chef, who nods and turns on some music.

"Let me know if you want to change the song."

Fizz nods.

Sarah gets up from her seat and sits down on fizz's side, who scoots over.

"So, you and Marie."

Fizz frowns.

"I'm sorry I kinda rushed into that... I'm gonna need to tell her."

"No, I understand. I saw what happened."

Fizz sighs.

"Not my best moment. Can you blame me for reacting so extremely?"

Sarah leans on fizz.

"Of course not. I know how much you care. Which is why when I die again in a few months, I want you to promise me you won't act the same way."

Fizz turns torwards her.

"Excuse me? What makes you think you're gonna die in a couple months?"

"This body's unstable. Zoey told me she would try and figure out a way to stop it."

"She better! No fucking way I'm losing you again so soon!"

The waiter drops off their food and gives them a thumbs up.

"Happy... 3rd anniversary, right?"

They both nod.

"Congratulations! The meal's on the house."

"That's really not necessary."

Fizz takes a couple credits out of his pocket and looks at them.

"Uhh, this is probably more than enough."

He gives the coins to the waiter, who looks at them and gawks.

"400 credits?! No, I can't possibly-"

"Please, I'm set for life at this point. I'm sure you need it more then I do."

The waiter smiles and walks off.

Sarah eats some of her food.

"Do you just carry around thousands in credits in your pockets?"

Fizz laughs.

"Yep. Ever since that time last summer."

"HA! That's right! You got stuck in calimari county with no money for three weeks!"

"It's a good thing Marie was available on such short notice."

Sarah does air quotes.

"She was quicker then yoooou~"

Sarah groans.

"I was having my own problems-"

A huge explosion is heard, causing fizz and Sarah to swing their heads around and look out the window.

"What the..."

Zack comes sprinting in and slams into their table.

"Alright, I know this is sudden, but I need your help."

Fizz blinks.

"Octarians... I think they just blew up a building."

Fizz goes wide eyed.

"Sarah. I know for a fact this is going to end badly. Please. Go. Home."

Sarah shakes her head.

"Nope."

"Yeah, I figured you would say that."

Zack rolls his eyes.

"No time for this-"

Another explosion rings out.

Fizz nods.

"Let's get moving."


	14. The attack and the absolute cheat

( What you thought the train was the climax haha nope. I completely cheat my way through this entire chapter because it's funny hehe. Anyway back into my hole until tomorrow. )

-chapterstart-

Aulbrey feels the ground shake and frowns.

"The hell was that?"

She gets up and goes over to the TV, turning it on.

Marina and pearl look unkept, and nervous.

"Uh-this just in! Octarians attacking inkopolis! Evacuation recommended!"

Aulbrey rolls her eyes.

"Just what I needed. Well, those octarian fucks aren't killing my target!"

She runs into the other room and looks at her robot.

"I didn't want to have to use this thing so early, but..."

She jumps into the chest, and starts the thing up.

"I really have no choice!"

-segmentline-

A knock on Arron and Anthony's door causes them to sit up.

"You get it."

Arron rolls his eyes and gets up.

He walks down the hall to the door and opens it.

He sees no one, and he looks around.

"Aaron!"

He looks down to see Hayden.

"Hayden? Where are your parents?"

She slumps over a bit.

"They kept yelling at me... So I ran away!"

Arron groans and grabs her.

"Anthony? We have company!"

Anthony comes out of the room.

"Hayden!"

A loud noise downstairs makes them freeze.

"What was that?"

Another loud noise.

Arron sets Hayden down and puts his ear to the floor.

Another noise.

"Someone's kicking down doors!"

Anthony goes over to the couch and starts pushing it.

"I'll... Get the door... Go get the weapons!"

Arron nods, grabs Hayden, and runs down the hallway.

-segmentline-

"Rece! Wake up!"

Rece groans, and turns over.

"Octarians are attacking!"

Rece sits up.

"WHAT!?"

He gets out of bed and looks at Aurie.

She's looking around nervously.

"We gotta find zodiac and Joey!"

"If they were playing turf wars, they're probably fine."

"Oh, the weapons!"

She runs off, coming back a second later with a bag of weapons.

The door is blown open.

"Move! Search the place!"

Aurie grabs an ink bomb and throws it down the hall.

"BOMB!"

The bomb explodes, coating most of the living room with ink.

"The bedroom! Get them!"

Rece grabs an inkbrush out of the bag, just as an octoling jumps on him.

"You're fucking dead!"

Aurie smashes a slosher onto the octoling's head, knocking her out.

Rece scrambles to get up.

Three more octolings come into the room.

Rece points the inkbrush at them and Aurie prepares the slosher.

The octoling's point their guns at them.

"Alright, stalemate."

The octolings back up a bit.

Rece glares.

"What are you doing here?"

"Searching for a generator."

Rece frowns.

"The only generator we have is the great zapfish..."

"No, someone in your city stole one from us, and about half of our domes lost power because of it."

Rece lowers his weapon a bit.

"Wait, someone stole from you?!"

"We're searching the city until we find it."

Aurie rolls her eyes.

"Then get out of here, we don't have it."

They look at Aurie.

"Why are you here?"

Aurie frowns.

"I live here? This guy's my boyfriend."

The octolings look back and forth between the two.

"He...is?"

"I don't have time for this. Look, we need to go find our friends. Mind leaving us alone?"

The three octolings look at each other and shrug.

"Alright. But we're still gonna search your house while we wait for the captain to wake up."

Rece tosses the inkbrush back into the bag and pulls out a jet squelcher.

"Alright, let's go."

They leave and the octolings look at each other again.

"So..."

They walk out and begin searching the house.

-segmentline-

Fizz punches an octoling in the face and kicks her.

Sarah tackles another, while Zack fires his gun at a few.

An octoling fires a gun, causing everyone to stop and look at her.

"Look, I'm fucking tired of fighting you asshats, just tell us where the stolen generator is!"

Zack gulps, while fizz rolls his eyes.

"I have no idea, stealing from you guys is the last thing on my mind right now."

The octoling points the gun at Zack.

"I was talking to him."

Zack backs up a bit.

Fizz glares at him.

"You didn't."

Zack groans.

"Fine, I know where it is..."

Fizz slaps zack.

"If this invasion gets someone killed, you're at fault."

Zack points down the road.

"It's not far. C'mon."

They start down the road, but quickly stop after a building next to them is pushed to the side.

"What is THAT?"

Aulbrey laughs from her control panel and puts the robots foot down, crushing one of the octolings.

The captain of their squad screams.

Fizz grabs Sarah and bolts down the street.

Aulbrey sees them running away and pushes half of a building on to the street, blocking them.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

Fizz groans.

"This is not gonna end well."

(Raging machines. It's the song for this next portion.)

Aulbrey slams one of the fists into the ground near them, and Sarah screams.

Fizz pulls Sarah back the way they came, as the remaining octolings shoot at the robot.

"We need to get out of here!"

Zack stares at the robot.

"God damn it..."

He sprints down the road, and fizz sees him.

"Oh, he was in on it the whole fucking time! Get him!"

Fizz starts to move, but Sarah almost teleports over to Zack and pins him down.

Fizz gawks for a moment, but is shaken by one of the octolings.

"We'll try and distract it, you find a way to take it down!"

She then turns and throws a ink bomb, causing the robot to stumble and break another building.

Fizz nods and runs away from the robot.

He pulls out his phone and quickly dials a number.

Anthony shoots at one of the four octolings currently trying to break into their house.

Arron's phone rings.

"Uh, fizz, bad time-"

"BAD TIME?! THERE IS A GIANT ROBOT IN THE SQUARE RIGHT NOW! I need your help taking it down, can you get over here?!"

Anthony groans.

"We'll try!"

He grabs Hayden and vaults over the barricade they have while bolting past the octolings, who all gawk at him.

Arron climbs over the barricade and one of the octolings punches him to the ground.

"Not this time!"

He holds up a burst bomb, and the octolings gasp.

"You asked for this."

He drops it, and it explodes, splatting them immediately.

He catches up to Anthony, and they keep sprinting.

Until they trip down the stairs.

The robot slams it's hand down again, crushing another octoling.

Fizz scrambles inside of another building, when he hears screaming.

He looks out the window and sees Zack pointing a gun at Sarah.

He growls and ducks outside of the building before running across the street.

The robot gets shot from down the road, and zodiac laughs.

"It's always something with you, isn't it!?"

Fizz smiles and reaches the building with Zack, who he punches immediately.

Joey and zodiac go into the building fizz was in before.

The robot turns around and looks at fizz fighting Zack.

"Oh no you don't!"

The robot steps torwards the building and raises it's fist.

"Zack! Get out of there!"

Joey grins and tosses a autobomb out.

It hits the robot, causing it to fall forward, crushing the building.

Zodiac slaps Joey.

"You idiot! Fizz and Sarah were in there!"

Joey looks at the collapsed building.

The robot slowly gets up, and it backs up.

"Zack?!"

The debris from the building starts to move, and everyone stares at it.

Sarah gasps as she climbs out of the debris, and she coughs before turning and looking back torwards the pile.

Nothing happens.

Aulbrey starts panicking, and the robot starts grabbing random debris and throwing it away.

She clears the whole area, and everyone comes over to look.

Zack is flattened. Blood is all around him, and his body is strung by wood.

Fizz has several shards of metal going straight through his head, and he is scarred everywhere.

Sarah and aulbrey both scream, and Sarah runs to fizz and starts pulling the metal out of his head.

"It was your fault."

Sarah turns and looks at aulbrey staring at her.

"What-"

The robot raises its fist and slams it down.

Sarah moves out of the way, and it raises its fist again.

Sarah grins.

It slams its fist down.

When it lifts it back up, Sarah is nowhere to be seen.

Everyone looks around, until Joey looks up.

Sarah waves at him.

Joey gawks and tugs at zodiac's shoulder, who also looks up.

He pumps his fist.

The robot moves it's hand down a bit, and Sarah nearly falls off.

Aulbrey screams in frustration before Slamming her hand on a button, causing the hand to be brought just above the control room.

Sarah jumps off the hand and slides down the chest, until she swings into the control room, kicking aulbrey in the face.

Aulbrey stumbles back and falls down.

"One of us isn't leaving this room alive."

Aulbrey gets back up, and spits a tooth and some ink out.

"Bring it on, bitch."

Sarah runs at her before slamming a fist into her face, and aulbrey stumbles, before she grabs Sarah and shoves her nearly out of the window.

"THIS IS THE END FOR YOU!"

Just then a loud honk rings out, and a truck flies over a building.

Marie smiles and fires her charger, hitting aulbrey and slamming her into the back wall.

Callie high fives Marie, and the truck goes over the robot.

Sarah laughs.

"Not so much."

She throws down a suction bomb and jumps out the window, and gets caught by the 3 remaining octolings.

Aulbrey regains her composure.

"Ugh..."

She looks at the bomb.

"FUC-"

The bomb explodes, causing the robot to malfunction.

"WE ARENT DONE YET!"

The robot starts spazzing out, hitting random things all over the place.

The octolings start throwing bombs at it, while Sarah runs back to the destroyed building.

The truck comes back around, and Callie raisies a disruptor.

"I GOT THIS ONE!"

She tosses the disruptor, causing the robot to twitch violently, and slowly stop moving.

It soon starts sparking, and it collapses in place, before exploding.

(The song ends here.)

The captain of the octolings signs.

"Who did we lose?"

One of the other octolings looks at the crushed bodies.

"Both privates, and the lieutenant."

The captain groans.

"Damn it."

She walks over to Sarah, who is looking over both of the bodies.

"Are you alright, miss...?"

"Sarah. And no, I'm not alright."

The captain pats her shoulder.

"Alright team, let's find where that robot came from!"

They leave, and Joey and zodiac walk over to Sarah.

"I'm so sorry."

Sarah shakes her head.

"What you did helped. It made her get reckless. Reckless people make mistakes."

Joey nods and looks over the body.

"Where do we put it?"

"Where did you put mine?"

Zodiac and Joey look at each other.

"Fizz?! We're here, we tripped down the fuckin stairs and had to recover for a bit-"

Anthony and Arron see the bodies.

"No..."

Sarah stands up.

"Bury it with mine. I'm going home."

She walks off, and zodiac looks at Anthony and Arron.

"She wants us to bury him with her old body."

Arron nods.

"Yeah. That sounds like her."

Anthony sighs.

"Alright. Let's... Move it."

Hayden pops off Anthony's head.

"Hey, it's bubda!"

She swims over to him, and pokes him.

"Why isn't he moving?"

Arron tears up and turns away, and Anthony walks over to her.

"He's dead, Hayden."

Hayden frowns.

"Dead?"

Anthony picks her up.

"He won't ever move again."

Hayden looks confused, and jumps out of Anthony's hands.

She jumps on fizz's stomach and jumps.

"Bubda?"

She moves his head around a bit, slowly becoming more frantic.

"Bubda?!"

She slaps him.

"...fizz?"

Anthony sighs and picks her up again.

"Hayden... He's gone."

She glares at him and pushes him back.

"No! I... I can wake him up!"

She goes back over and starts messing with fizz again.

Anthony crouches down and opens his arms.

Hayden does everything she can do, before breaking down in tears and running into Anthony's arms.

Joey shakes his head and goes over to the body, picking up the head.

"Zodiac, help?"

Zodiac nods and picks up the legs, and they start moving him.

-segmentline-

"Hey! Wake up!"

Fizz groans.

"What? Where am I?"

Octoling helps him up.

"The void. After you died, you showed up here."

Fizz frowns.

"That can't be right. Can I go back?"

Octoling shrugs and opens a portal.

"Try."

Fizz walks over to the portal and tries to put his hand through it.

His hand is forced back.

Fizz groans.

"No! Damn it, NO!"

He punches the portal.

Octoling grabs him and pulls him back.

Hopper walks back through a portal and looks at fizz and octoling.

"Fizz? How did you get here?"

"He died, hopper."

Hopper gawks.

"What!? No, that's not possible."

Fizz shrugs.

"I was bound to happen eventually. I'm just surprised that the train didn't kill me."

"No, that's not what I mean. Me and you, we can't die. It's literally not possible."

Fizz frowns.

"Uhh?"

"You're here for a reason. I'm sure I can figure it out."

"Maybe he's here to be part of the team?"

Hopper shakes his head.

"Him? Traveling through fanfics with you, Marie, and Callie? Doubtful."

Octoling shrugs.

"It was just a suggestion."

Fizz sits down.

"Well, you can figure it out. I'm just gonna sit here and enjoy death."

Hopper rolls his eyes and goes through another portal.

-segmentline-

Zoey and John are keeping a barricade over a door.

Several people stare at them, terrified.

"Let. Us. IN!"

The octolings outside slam into the door again, knocking Zoey forward.

"Leave us alone!"

The banging stops, and they hear them talking.

"They found the generator, let's go!"

Zoey frowns.

"They were looking for a generator?"

They hear footsteps leading away.

Everyone in the bar sighs.

"That was close. What if they had gotten in?!"

"I know, we would've all been dead!"

John hugs Zoey.

"Quick thinking. Now, should we go find the others?"

Zoey nods.

"Yeah. Hopefully they all just stayed in their houses."

They leave the bar and see some half destroyed buildings around them.

"What in the hell, did the octarians do this?"

Zoey looks around.

"No. They don't have anything that could cause this."

"There's a path. It leads torward the square."

Zoey nods.

"Then that's where we're going. C'mon."

They start walking.

-segmentline-

Rece and Aurie enter the square, and see zodiac and Joey trying to move fizz's body, while Anthony comforts Hayden and Arron.

Rece runs over to zodiac and Joey.

"What happened?!"

"Aulbrey showed up with a giant robot and ended up crushing fizz and Zack."

Rece groans.

"That bitch better be dead this time, I knew fizz made a mistake when he let her go."

Zodiac stares at him.

"What?"

"It happened back in school. It's not important right now."

Aurie holds up one of fizz's sides.

"Where are we taking him?"

"To wherever Sarah was buried."

Anthony comes over, with Hayden and Arron still sobbing behind him.

"She was buried in Octo valley, where she first was pushed into inkopolis. It's where she requested she be buried."

Aurie nods.

"I know where that is. I came in that way too."

Anthony nods.

"Good. Let's get a move on. Help keep these two from losing it."

He starts off, and Aurie looks at Joey.

"Well? Let's get moving."

Joey starts moving.

Aurie sighs.

"Figures."

"Hmm?"

"Sarah gets revived, fizz dies."

Zodiac groans.

"I feel so bad for Sarah. Now she has to deal with what fizz felt."

Joey shrugs.

"She'll be fine. She's tough."

"I hope so."

-segmentline-

Sarah opens and closes the door.

"Uuuuugh..."

She stumbles over to the couch and collapses on it.

"He'sdeadhe'sdeadhe'sdead."

She starts crying, and looks upwards.

"Well, I'll see him in a few months. hey, how's it going up there?"

(He's not there.)

Sarah frowns.

"Excuse me?"

(He's not there. I'm not allowed to kill other mes, so I just moved him into the void. He's still alive though, technically.)

Sarah breaks down crying, and she runs to her bedroom.

(That probably wasn't what she wanted to hear.)

Ya think?

(Hey, I finally did it. I killed myself.)

Oh, fuck you.

-segmentline-

Panda glares at Zack, who stares back at him.

"Can you guys stop that? It's creepy."

Panda rolls his eyes.

"He won't respond to anything. It's weird."

Tori snorts.

"If he wants to be a bitch, that's his problem."

Karl nods.

"Also, why isn't Fizz here? He died too, right?"

Nathan cheers from the side until panda throws a ball at him.

"He probably was taken somewhere else."

"What sense does that make? He died, he should be here."

( Can you all just shut the fuck up about fizz? He's in the void with hopper.)

Tori groans.

"Great, the best character now has to deal with the worst."

"Tori, they're both the same person."

"Shut up."

-segmentline-

Fizz taps the floor of the void.

"How does this work? And how did you find this place?"

Octoling shrugs.

"Hopper was in it before he found me, so ask him."

Fizz stands up and looks at octoling.

"You know, you remind me a lot of Sarah."

"How so?"

"Well, you have the same way of speaking that makes everything sound relaxed. You're also around the same height."

"The octolings in my world are far different from yours. They're all enslaved at the moment as well, so..."

"What? Why?"

"Inklings couldn't forgive us after taking the great zapfish a second time, so they made sure we didn't do anything else."

"That's terrible!"

"That's kinda why I'm here. I was scheduled for execution. Hopper just happened to arrive right then, and he saved me."

"Where did Marie and Callie come from then?"

"We accidentally broke the timeline in the universe they came from, and it threw them here."

"Can I see your eyes?"

"What?"

"Remove the goggles. I wanna see your eyes."

Octoling shrugs, and tosses the goggles away.

Fizz tilts his head a bit.

"Blue eyes. Interesting."

"Is something wrong with that?"

"No, I was just expecting green eyes."

Octoling rolls her eyes.

"Nothing is that simple. Especially when it comes to stuff around hopper."

"How so?"

Octoling walks away, before turning back and gesturing for fizz to follow her.

She goes to another area in the void with podiums of objects and pictures.

"Look around. Most of this was here when I got here, but some of this stuff I remember. Vividly."

Fizz looks at a photo near the end of the area.

"First fanfic...?"

It's a photo of hopper looking happy while standing next to some humans he doesn't recognize.

"That's a nice place."

Fizz goes further down the line.

"Fixing the problem."

Hopper has several knives floating around him, and his left eye is glowing yellow.

Fizz looks at octoling, who looks uncomfortable.

"That... I don't what that picture is about. It freaks me out."

Fizz looks at another one right next to it.

"The talent show."

The picture has hopper and someone else on a stage with a girl tied to a chair.

"Hopper mumbled something about this once. Someone named... Aulbrey? Another thing about a promise?"

Fizz turns slowly torward octoling.

"Well, I just found out what my next conversation with hopper is gonna be."

He goes down the line and finds a revolver.

"The scorge of the untoten?"

"Untoten means undead. He once had to deal with zombies."

Fizz snickers and moves down the line again.

"Closure."

The picture is hopper, beaten to shit, with his eyes glowing bright blue.

"I asked about this once. He told me it was the best day of his life."

Fizz frowns and looks at the picture directly next to it.

"Splatoon hell?"

The picture shows hopper looking very unhappy next to marina and some random octoling.

"That was the beginning. You should look at the next one."

He nods and moves to it.

"Savior."

The picture has hopper standing in front of a crying octoling, yelling at an octoling elite.

"That's me."

"You look... So broken."

"After he rescued me, I didn't talk for weeks. But..."

She points to a later picture.

"He seemed so sad after he came back from mending time, that I figured I had to try and cheer him up."

Fizz looks at the picture she's pointing to.

"Comfort."

The picture shows octoling hugging hopper, who looks upset.

"You and him... You seem close."

"We've been through a lot."

"Do you... Like him?"

Octoling glares at fizz.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Do you like him?"

"Not in THAT way, no."

Fizz shrugs.

"Alright, well. Mind showing me around this place?"

"There's not much to see, but sure. Come on."


	15. Other fanfics? This cannot be!

( Now here's where thing get messy, because I start to use characters from other fanfics. If the usage bothers anybody then... I dunno, report the story? Yell at me about it? All I know is that rewriting this section seemed pointless so I left it the way it was. Derailment starts now! )

-chapterstart-

"Hopper?"

Hopper turns torwards the front of the room he's standing in, which has an octoling and an inkling on a couch.

"Quiet, I'm trying to think."

"Hopper."

"Lacey."

Lacey raises an eyebrow.

"What exactly are you thinking about?"

"Why someone died and ended up in the void."

Lacey looks at the inkling, who shrugs.

"Look you two. I'm hanging out here to stay out of the void."

The inkling frowns.

"Why? Usually you're so eager to get back to the void."

"May, you already know the answer to that. I'm avoiding the person who died."

May groans.

"Look, we got our own problems here. What if Aaron-"

Hopper laughs.

"I wouldn't worry about him finding anything out. Even if he does, nothing bad will happen."

May seems unsure, but Lacey nods.

"He's got a point. If he really is your friend, he won't do anything."

"Well... Alright."

Hopper's eye starts flashing.

He rolls his eyes and closes his eye.

"Talk to me."

May and Lacey look at each other, confused.

Hopper snickers.

"You expect me to believe that? Chara, I have bigger problems to deal with right now."

"I know you do, but... He's not getting much better."

Hopper grinds his teeth.

"Me being there will make it infinitely worse. I've gotta get done with this slice of life stuff."

"How long will it be?"

"Not much longer. Another week at least."

"Which time is that?"

"Yours. For me, it'll be about a couple hours, and for everyone in that universe, it'll be a couple days."

He hears a sigh, followed by a click.

He blinks, and his eye returns to normal.

"Alright, now..."

A portal opens next to him, and fizz stumbles out before it closes.

Hopper twitches.

"What the hell did you do?!"

Fizz steadies himself, and glares at hopper.

"I asked how the portal stuff worked. She shoved me through one because she figured hands on experience would be better."

Hopper facepalms.

"Octoling..."

Fizz looks at may and Lacey, before nodding.

"These two definitely love each other. They're adorable too, where do you find these places?"

"How did you figure that out so fast?"

Fizz shrugs.

"You two seem like you're meant for each other. Plus, you two are holding hands."

May looks down, before letting go of Lacey's hand.

Lacey frowns and grabs the hand back.

Hopper groans.

"Great, he's got intuition! Guess I better just LET HIM ON THE TEAM, RIGHT?!"

(You probably should. It only seems right.)

May and Lacey look around the room.

"Who was that?"

Hopper waves his hand at them before shoving fizz through another portal.

"Don't worry about it. Now, why are you trying to get him on the team?"

(I'm not. I'm trying to get you to realize why the hell he's there in the first place. But, since you're so bad at this kind of thing, I'll just tell you.)

Hopper crosses his arms.

"Well?"

(He's there to act as a placeholder for the story. Whether or not he comes back entirely depends on how the people in universe feel.)

Hopper frowns.

"But... You're writing them."

(I know.)

"Oh, you fucker."

(Mhmm.)

"You made it a win-win!"

(Yep.)

Hopper laughs.

"Well, considering everything that has happened so far, they could use the win."

Hopper opens a portal.

"I'm gonna go tell them the good news. See you two later."

May and Lacey wave, and hopper goes through the portal.

-segmentline-

"We're here."

They set the body down.

Aurie looks around the area.

"The mound over there. Anthony, come help."

Anthony looks around.

"Uh, how? We didn't bring any shovels."

"It's a slab. I need help pushing it open."

Anthony walks over.

"Oh. Alright."

Rece, Zodiac, and Joey set the body down.

"Can't believe he's dead. And of all the ways to die..."

Rece sighs.

"He was cutting it closer and closer as it was. That whole thing with the train honestly should've killed him."

"I still feel like this was my fault..."

Zodiac shakes his head.

"You helped. Sometimes you just can't save everyone."

Arron has calmed down, and is cradling Hayden, who cried herself to sleep.

"He's right. Remember the battle? The one with Nathan?"

Joey nods.

"I get it. But it doesn't make me feel any less terrible."

"Grave's open. Come on."

They pick up the body and move it into the grave.

Anthony and Aurie push the slab back over it.

A pillar comes out of the ground, startling everyone.

Rece goes over to it, and picks up a disk labeled "lane boy + strobelite."

"It's a disk with what seems like two songs."

Aurie takes the disk.

"Well, that's unusual. Shall we go listen to them? They might be important."

Everyone agrees, and they start to walk back.

-segmentline-

"So you just gave them that CD?"

Octoling nods and closes the CD port.

"Your brother got his CD the same way, granted it was an accident, but still."

"This place is amazing! Anything else?"

"No, that's pretty much everything. Now what are you gonna do?"

Fizz shrugs.

"I might see where you guys have been. I saw the one hopper was in when you pushed me, but I figure there's a lot to get through."

"That's not a good idea. Lots of those fanfics are dangerous."

"Can I die more than once? Am I even dead right now?"

Octoling throws her arms up.

"I don't fucking know, just don't get yourself killed, alright?!"

Fizz nods, and goes to the portal maker.

"Input requested destination."

Fizz looks at the list of fanfics next to the terminal, and imputs the one for "mending time."

"What era would you like to be sent to?"

Fizz looks at the options.

"Beginning, middle, after? What kinda options..."

He presses the one for middle.

"Enjoy your stay at- Mending. Time."

He walks through the portal and hits his chest on a table.

"OW!"

He backs up a bit and sees several inklings sitting at the table.

"Who the hell are you?"

Fizz looks around.

"A restaurant, huh? I was expecting something more flashy."

"I resent that!"

An inkling comes from the kitchen.

"I'll have you know this restaurant- wait, who are you?"

Fizz looks at the man.

"Is your name chase, by any chance?"

The man looks suprised.

"How do you know that?"

Fizz snaps his fingers.

"Because we have the same name."

Chase looks at him closely.

"Well I still don't know how that makes you able to just suddenly know my name."

Fizz turns around and looks at the table.

"Now, who are all of you?"

Chase points at the inkling on the right most side of the booth.

"That's Claire. Careful, she's a bit touchy."

"Fuck off."

"Exactly. The next one over is Annabelle. Claire's sister. She's a bit shy."

"Hi..."

Fizz waves.

"That... CICI, WAKE UP!"

The squid form inkling laying on the table groans.

"Whyyyyyy, I'm tired..."

"Ugh, that's Cici. She never stops sleeping. Ever."

"Zzzzzzzzz..."

"She's jewel. She works as a model."

Fizz raises his eyebrow.

"Jewel, huh?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Interesting. And him?"

"Adstrum. He's the owner of the turf wars around here."

Fizz frowns.

"Where's... Here?"

"Well-"

Claire groans.

"Look, he can figure that out himself, can I just get my fucking lunch?!"

Chase winks at her and walks back into the kitchen.

Fizz looks at all of them.

"What an interesting group. So we have the angry one, the shy one, the sleepy one, the imposter one, and the aggressive one."

Adstrum glares at him.

"Imposter one? Jewel is not an imposter."

Fizz shrugs.

"If you say so. Wait. I just realized, how am I supposed to get back...?"

He bangs on the table.

"Damn. Well, I'm stuck here."

Claire snorts.

"How exciting."

"All your names are a bit too convenient."

Cici mumbles something before jumping into fizz's head.

"Fizzy fazo fuzzo..."

Fizz tries to pry the sleeping cici off his head, but she's stuck.

"Well. Now I have someone on my head."

Adstrum and "jewel" get up from the table to help pry Cici off.

"Well this is interesting."

They eventually succeed, and adstrum goes into the kitchen to talk to chase.

Fizz leans on the table.

"Alright, 'jewel', where exactly do you come from?"

Jewel glares at him.

"Look, if you know, could you just fuck off? I have my reasons."

Fizz smirks.

"Sure thing Callie. Oops! I mean jeeeeeewel."

Jewel gives him the death stare.

"You're lucky everyone here already knew it."

Fizz shrugs.

"Why you're hiding it confuses me, but knowing you, another you anyway, I'm sure it had to be important."

Jewel nods.

"Yes, very much so, now please don't mention it again."

A loud noise rings out, followed by another.

Fizz turns torwards the kitchen, where an inkling with an octarian tentacle runs out of the kitchen.

"What the...?"

The inkling runs to fizz and hides behind him.

Fizz looks at him, before turning back to the kitchen.

What looks like a cybernetic hopper comes out.

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

Fizz pushes the inkling underneath the table.

"I think the better question is, who are YOU?"

He rolls his eyes.

"I'm time. Dumbass. Now, if you would kindly tell me where that fucking traitor is..."

"Who was that and why is he a traitor?"

Time growls.

"That's inkling you. I'm sure you've heard of him from hopper. But it doesn't matter SINCE HE NEARLY KILLED STEP-DOWN!"

"Step-down?"

"It's another you- LOOK, WOULD YOU JUST-"

Time shoots at the ceiling, and pushes fizz out of the way as he's startled.

He looks under the table and sees nothing.

"Damn it. He must've gone to another universe."

Time types something on his wrist, and a portal opens.

Time does a sort of salute, and leaves.

Jewel takes squid form inkling out of her tentacles, and tosses him to fizz.

Inkling snuggles into fizz's chest.

Fizz pats his head.

"Hey... You have a name aside from 'inkling me'?"

Inkling looks up.

"Ruubfvcau, fhjdiei? Vhjbcdh."

Fizz blinks.

"Uh...?"

Inkling sighs, and snuggles back into fizz's chest.

A portal opens next to him, and octoling pokes her head out.

"I saw everything. C'mon, let's go."

Fizz nods and jumps through the portal.

Everyone at the table looks at each other.

"That. Was weird."

"No kidding."

-segmentline-

"They say stay in your lane boy, lane boy, we go where we want to!"

"This is really good."

Everyone nods.

"Why did this CD appear though..."

Rece looks at the case it came in.

"This looks like the same kind of case my songs came in."

Aurie walks over to him.

"What do you mean?"

"I found a disk case with a bunch of relics in it when I was younger. Fizz and Sarah ended up getting it when I lost it."

Zodiac goes over to the stereo when the song stops, and turns it to the other song.

"Momentary pain, can be pleasure lane!"

Joey nods approvingly.

"Nice..."

Anthony takes Hayden from Arron.

"What are we doing with her?"

Arron shrugs.

"I have no idea. We could take her back, but..."

"She would hate us."

Arron sighs.

"We could take her in, or give her to Sarah..."

"We should take her for now, at least until Sarah gets it together."

Zodiac stretches.

"Well, I'm gonna go die now, wake me up if something important happens."

He walks off.

Joey stands up as well.

"I'm gonna turn in too. It's been interesting."

He waves and follows zodiac down the hallway.

Aurie looks at Rece.

"I-"

Rece grabs her arm and starts dragging her down the hallway.

"Well, good to know you can read me~"

Anthony laughs.

"Well, we should probably get going. Aurie and Rece are gonna want their privacy."

Arron nods and goes to turn off the stereo.

"Well, let's get going then."

-segmentline-

Zoey and John look over the square.

"What the hell did this?"

Zoey shakes her head.

"I have no idea."

"Whose house should we head to? Anthony and Arron's, or fizz's?"

"Probably fizz's. He usually is the one that gets caught up in these things."

"Hope he's ok..."

They move through the square, avoiding debris that was littered everywhere during the attack.

"It's gonna take them forever to get this place fixed..."

Zoey looks at several collapsed buildings on the other side of the street.

"Looks like whatever happened, it was ended over there."

John nods.

"Look at all the scrap metal around too. Do you think this was an octoweapon?"

"Octoweapons don't leave scrap metal. This was something else."

Several octolings are seen carrying a generator down the street.

Zoey and John run up to them.

"Do you guys know what happened here?"

The captain of the octolings steps forward.

"Why do you wanna know?"

"Some friends of ours might've been here."

The octoling thinks for a moment.

"Was one of them an octoling with red tentacles, and an inkling with dark blue?"

"Yes! That must've been Sarah and fizz!"

"Well, the inkling's dead. Some crazy bitch came and attacked us in the square with a giant robot."

John immediately loses his smile, while Zoey takes a moment to process the information.

"Wait. Fizz is DEAD?!"

The octoling nods.

"Him, some other inkling, and Sarah? Yeah. Were in a building when the robot fell on it. Only Sarah survived."

John frowns.

"Some other inkling?"

"Yeah. The pilot of the robot got really upset when she found out he was dead."

Zoey nods.

"We need to check on Sarah. You guys better get out of here before you get arrested."

The octoling nods.

"Alright ladies, c'mon! You can move faster than that!"

"If we had more than one person holding this thing-"

"DID I ASK FOR YOU TO BACK TALK ME?!"

Zoey and John start running torwards flounder heights.

-segmentline-

Upon entering the void, inkling jumps down from fizz's arms and looks around.

"Eyhsj ufe j?"

Fizz looks at octoling in confusion.

Octoling shrugs.

"I learned inkish pretty quickly."

Inlking turns to octoling.

"Jdherk. Wifpjabgy?"

"Cfgeoxs."

"What's he saying?"

"I asked his name, and he asked mine."

"And?"

"He said inkling, I said octoling."

"Wow, so you both have the most basic names ever."

"I think it's more of a title."

She snaps her fingers.

"I think hopper left a translator around here somewhere..."

She goes to the desk in the middle of the area, and searches the drawers.

"Aha! Here, put this in his ear."

She tosses the small device to fizz, who catches it.

"Alright?"

He goes over to inkling, who looks up at him.

Fizz motions to the device, then to his ear.

Inkling looks confused for a moment, before he nods and turns to his side.

Fizz puts the device in inkling's ear.

"Alright, how do you feel?"

"H edll... I feel ok!"

Fizz smiles.

"Alright. Now we're getting somewhere."

Inkling goes into squid form and jumps onto fizz's head.

Fizz giggles and pets inkling, who purrs and relaxes into fizz's tentacles.

Octoling chuckles.

"You two seem to like each other."

Fizz nods.

"He's like me, without my friends. And with an octarian tentacle."

"It suits you."

Fizz rubs one of his tentacles.

"I dunno. I think I prefer having octolings on me than part of me."

Octoling laughs.

"Did you mean to say that?"

Fizz blinks.

"Wait, what did I say?"

Octoling pinches his cheek.

"You're adorable. Now I gotta go figure out where Marie and Callie went. Stay here."

She walks off, turning around to wave before leaving.

Fizz sighs.

He pats his head again. No response.

"He fell asleep? Wow, that's so cute."

He walks over to the portal machine again.

"What other places can I go to..."

He looks through the list and sees slice of life at the very bottom.

"That seems interesting."

He presses the button, this time opting for the 'beginning' option.

The portal opens.

He enters it with no problems.

He ends up in the plaza.

"Ah... I never thought I would miss this place."

"Hey guys!"

Fizz turns around and sees Anthony and Arron walking up to a table.

"Woah. Double deja Vu."

Fizz smiles.

"Arron, Anthony, How nice of you two to finally show up. Two hours after we came to check on you."

"Looks like I figured out which fanfic is mine."

He blinks.

"Wait. I'm not supposed to be here."

He looks around.

"I always wanted to know how Sarah got here..."

He starts moving forwards the edge of the plaza.

"Hey."

Fizz freezes and turns to see panda.

"Where are you going?"

"Uh... The outskirts?"

Panda shrugs.

"If you say so. You'll miss splatfest though."

"Meh. It's a bit loud."

"I hear that. I'm practically blind from all the strobe lights last night."

Fizz breaths a sigh of relief, before slipping through the bushes.

"Damn it, I thought I burnt these fuckin things... ...Oh. Right."

-segmentline-

Sarah sighs.

"Of all the things to kill him..."

She sits up and looks around the room.

"I wonder how much of my stuff he actually got rid of..."

She hops off the bed and goes to the closet.

"Huh. Everything's still here."

"I always am super sentimental."

Sarah swings around and sees hopper standing with his back turned.

"Hopper? What are-"

"Oh you know, just visiting. I'm here to give you some good news."

Sarah sits down on the bed again.

"About what?"

"Fizz. Turns out you might be able to get him out of the void."

Sarah jumps up and grabs Hopper's shirt.

"How."

Hopper stares at her in suprise before shrugging.

"I'm not sure yet. But I know it's possible."

Sarah groans.

"And how long will it take you to figure it out?!"

"I can't have all the answers. I'm not all knowing."

Sarah slaps him.

"GET OUT OF HERE, AND DON'T COME BACK UNTIL YOU CAN GET HIM BACK!"

Hopper blinks and opens a portal.

He leaves, and Sarah collapses back onto the bed.

"Maybe I was a bit harsh."

She frowns.

"I should go tell Marie and Callie what happened. They only saw the end."

She nods and jumps off her bed.

"Marie's gonna be soooooo confused..."

-segmentline-

Arron sets Hayden down in the guest bed and walks out to the living room.

"She's down."

Anthony nods and pats the seat next to him.

Arron sits down.

"So, what's the plan here?"

Arron shrugs.

"We take care of her for a while I suppose. At least until we can talk to Sarah about it."

"Well, she's not as much trouble as she used to be."

"Yeah. And she likes us."

They hear a small yawn from the other room.

Hayden walks into the room, and climbs onto Arron's lap before closing her eyes.

Anthony sighs.

"Guess she just needs comfort."

Arron pats Hayden's head, and she sighs.

"I love you guys..."

She drifts off, and Arron yawns.

"Well, since I'm stuck here for a bit, can you get me a blanket?"

Anthony nods, and gets up.

Arron tries to lie down without moving Hayden too much.

Anthony comes back with the blanket.

"Here."

Arron lifts Hayden up so he can cover himself.

"I'm gonna sleep for a bit... You go try and talk with Sarah."

Anthony nods, and walks to his room.

"Where are you going bubda? Come back..."

Arron looks at Hayden, who still has her eyes closed.

He rubs her head a bit until she relaxes.

Arron smiles and closes his eyes.

-segmentline-

Fizz peeks through the bush near a campsite.

"She should be here any minute..."

He hears footsteps, and retreats into the bush.

"That's ridiculous. You don't exile someone because of their condition."

Fizz nods and looks out the bush again.

Sarah is standing next to an octoling boy.

"Well, she was too needy I guess. No one could keep up with her."

"I feel bad for her."

Fizz steps on a stick inside the bush.

"Did you hear that?"

The guy shrugs.

"I didn't hear anything..."

They stop next to the grate.

"Hey, I wanted to ask you something."

The guy turns to her with his back to the bush.

Fizz groans quietly, and moves out of the bush as quietly as possible.

"Yeah?"

Fizz moves behind a nearby tree.

"I... Uh... I like you."

The guy seems to be confused.

"Are you asking me out?"

Sarah nods, and fizz peeks around the tree.

The guy laughs.

"Nope. You aren't hot enough for me."

Sarah sighs.

"Yeah... You're right..."

Fizz growls.

"YOU FUCKER!"

Fizz jumps from the tree and punches the guy in the back, causing him to fly forward, knocking Sarah into the grate.

"Oh, fuck!"

The guy turns around.

"What the hell man!?"

Fizz blinks.

"Wait, if I...?"

Octoling comes out of a portal and punches fizz.

"I SAID STAY THERE!"

She grabs fizz and drags him through the portal.

"Watch the tentacles man!"

Octoling groans and throws fizz forward.

"Do you know what you just did?!"

"I created a stable time loop?"

"No! You just fucked with the past!"

"But that was supposed to happen. I just pushed Sarah into inkopolis."

Octoling looks confused, and she turns to a screen with the status of all the fanfics on it.

"Oh. You're right. My bad."

Fizz gets up.

"So does that count as time travel?"

"Uh... No? Fuck, I have no idea."

"I'm gonna go with yes. Now, did you find Callie and Marie?"

Octoling sighs.

"No. I have no clue where they went. I can only wait for them to come back, I guess."

Fizz hears a noise behind him, and turns.

The TV from before switches to the inkopolis news channel.

Pearl seems genuinely angry, and marina seems very on edge.

"The octarian attack has been resolved, apparently they were looking for a generator that someone stole from them. After they found it, they left peacefully."

Pearl rolls her eyes.

"Yeah, after they destroyed several buildings and had a giant robot mess some stuff up."

Marina frowns.

"That wasn't the octarians. According to one of the octoling generals, the giant robot was trying to kill some inklings in the square before it was taken down by an octoling they had never seen before."

"I'll believe it when I get some proof. I'm not so quick to trust octoling word after today."

Marina seems upset by this comment.

Fizz groans.

"Damn it pearl, stop being so stubborn!"

Octoling chuckles.

"That's a lot to ask, don't ya think?"

Fizz smiles.

"Yeah. Hopefully someone we know will see that and set pearl straight."

Inkling purrs on fizz's head.

"Oh! I forgot you were up there!"

Fizz picks up inkling and sets him down, and he turns humanoid.

"That was a nice nap..."

Fizz shifts his tentacles around.

"I'm sure it was. Now, why is time trying to kill you?"

Inkling loses his smile.

"I... Accidentally stabbed step-down with his own knife..."

Fizz bursts out laughing.

Octoling stares at him.

"What? What's so funny?"

"No, it's just, 'I stabbed myself with my own knife.' that's amazing."

"He survived with the help of time, but now time considers me dangerous. He never did like me or hopper..."

"There it is again! 'I don't like myself.' It's like a metaphor!"

Octoling rolls her eyes.

"Well, you can stay here all you want. At least until time finds you."

Inkling gives octoling a hug.

Octoling pats inkling's head.

Fizz shrugs.

"Well, I think I might see about going to another fanfic. These get more interesting the more I explore."

Octoling nods.

"Here, take this."

Octoling tosses a small device to him.

"It's a remote for the portal machine. I made one for you since you seem like you're gonna be here a while."

Fizz looks at the device.

"You made this? How old are you?"

Octoling smirks.

"I'm 14. At least I think I am. I was 14 when hopper found me."

Inkling smiles.

"I'm 14 too! You look a lot older than you are, octoling."

"I know. Hopper tells people in the universes we go to that we're both 18 so we can go to most places."

"Does it work?"

"Sometimes. It depends on the universe."

Fizz rolls his eyes.

"I'll leave you to it. See ya."

Fizz walks to the machine, and enters the portal it creates.


	16. I interfere with the story a lot here

( Nearing the end, just a few more chapters to go! And some more fanfics to visit! Oh- someone asked me what the names of my characters are, and I'm gonna put them here instead of the first chapter because I'm lazy. For THIS STORY, not the first one, fizz and Karl are both 18, Anthony is 19, Arron is 20, zodiac and Joey are 19, Aurie and Zoey are 20, so is Rece, and John is 23. Everyone else is irrelevent and you shouldn't worry about them. That's that, on with the show. Fanfic, whatever. )

-chapterstart-

Marina glances at pearl, who seems to be fiddling with some papers.

"Pearl-"

"Don't talk to me."

Marina sighs.

She goes over to her DJ stand.

"Guess I'll finish mixing the song..."

She puts on her headphones.

Pearl sets the papers down.

She turns and looks at Marina, who's pressing some buttons.

"I know it wasn't her... But I can't let it go..."

Hopper walks in, startling pearl.

"Where did you come from?!"

"The door. So, what's up?"

Pearl looks at Marina again.

"I can't bring myself to forgive her. I know it wasn't her fault, but I can't let it go."

Hopper nods.

"I see. I can tell you right now it was not her fault. This fucker Zack stole a generator from them to power a robot."

"So it wasn't their robot."

"No. That robot belonged to someone who wanted fizz dead."

"Wait, don't tell me."

"He was in fact killed, but I have been informed by a very reliable source that you guys can bring him back."

Pearl looks skeptical.

"What source would this be?"

(Hi.)

Pearl blinks and looks around the room.

"Where did that come from?"

Hopper chuckles.

"Don't worry about it."

(It's true though. You can bring him back.)

"How?"

(Just want him back. Everyone who knew him has to want him back.)

"Everyone? That's kind of impossible."

(I mean everyone who knew him personally. So that's only 14 people.)

Hopper points to himself.

"15, if you count me."

(Right. then the writing lock I have on him will be broken, and he'll be kicked out of the void.)

"Alright, I want him back."

*1.*

Hopper nods.

"That's one."

"I want fizz back too."

*2*

Marina walks over and smiles.

Pearl gives her a hug.

"I'm sorry for being so cold."

"It's ok pearl. I know it was just you being stubborn."

(Alright, that's two. I'm sure the others will have no problem saying they want him back as well.)

Hopper nods again and walks off.

Pearl looks at the table.

"So, what were you working on?"

"The finishing touches on our new song. I think I'm about done, wanna hear it?"

"Sure!"

-segmentline-

Sarah pops up from the grate and looks at Callie and Marie, who are talking on the nearby bench.

She starts walking over to them, and Callie notices her, and pokes Marie, getting her to look.

Marie scoots closer to Callie.

"Hey. I gotta talk to you two about something."

Marie raises an eyebrow.

"Who are you exactly?"

Sarah opens her mouth to speak when they hear laughing.

They all look at the roof of Marie's shack, where hopper is crouched.

"That's quite a story. Can I tell it?"

Sarah chuckles.

"Sure, if you can handle it."

Hopper smiles and jumps down.

"Well, the first thing you need to know is that this is Sarah. Like, our Sarah."

Callie immediately jumps up and squeezes Sarah in a hug.

"OOF. I missed you too Callie... Please, you're choking me..."

Callie lets go.

"How?!"

Hopper taps his head.

"Now that's the story. You see-"

"How's fizz?"

Everyone looks at Marie, who seems uninterested in Sarah.

Hopper and Sarah look at each other.

"He's dead."

Marie goes wide-eyed, and nearly falls backward off the bench.

"He can however, be brought back."

Sarah swings her head to hopper.

"WHAT?!"

Hopper smirks.

"Do you want fizz back?"

Sarah looks annoyed.

"Yes, of course I want fizz back!"

*3.*

Sarah looks around.

"What was that?"

Hopper nods.

"Oh you know, just the counter for how many people have said they want fizz back."

Callie claps.

"Hey, I want fizz back too!"

*4.*

"Make it 5. It would be a shame to leave my boyfriend dead."

Hopper rolls his eyes.

"You have to, you know, say the phrase?"

"Oh, right. I want fizz back."

*5.*

Sarah sighs.

"Look, Marie-"

"Shut it. We'll deal with this when he comes back to life."

Sarah groans.

Hopper looks at his watch, and gasps.

"Holy shit, I'm late! Tell everyone else about the fizz thing, ok?!"

He disappears.

Sarah nods.

"I'm gonna go do that. You two... Are you coming back?"

"I have to stay here until Gramps gets back."

Callie snickers.

"Yeah, and so you can stalk agent 4 some more."

"Quiet you."

Sarah smiles and jumps through the grate again.

-segmentline-

Rece stretches out, putting his arm around Aurie.

Aurie giggles and tackles Rece.

"C'mon, round 4?"

Rece shakes his head.

"You're gonna kill me if you push me this much when we get older."

"With this much sex, you'll probably be used to it!"

Rece chuckles.

"Yeah well, I'm exhausted. Wait a bit before fucking me to death, eh?"

Aurie nods.

"What do you want to do instead?"

Rece pulls her down for a kiss, and she moves off of him while holding the kiss.

They continue, keeping themselves oblivious to the fact zodiac and Joey are staring at them from the doorway.

Zodiac clears his throat.

They ignore him.

Zodiac rolls his eyes.

"AHEM."

They still don't react.

Joey snickers.

"Dude, you aren't gonna get through to them."

"Well, I can try! HELLO?! EARTH TO RECE AND AURIE!"

Nothing.

Zodiac throws his arms up.

"Unbelievable."

"Is it really though?"

"I guess not."

Joey shrugs and walks out.

Zodiac sighs.

"If you can hear me, which I doubt, me and Joey are gonna go help with the repairs since Joey feels guilty and he's dragging me into it. Be back whenever."

He walks out as well, and Rece and Aurie both look at the doorway.

Aurie giggles.

"Good to know we were on the same page~"

"I think I'm ready for that sex now."

Aurie smiles and gets back on top of him.

"Whenever you're ready~"

Rece smiles and inserts himself into Aurie.

"Mmmmah..."

Aurie starts moving, grabbing Rece for a long kiss.

"Yes~ More!"

She sits up and Rece starts moving, causing Aurie to let out a sharp gasp.

She doesn't last much longer after that, throwing her head back and moaning loudly.

"Keep going, ah~!"

Rece picks up the pace a bit, raising his back so he can move faster.

Aurie's moans get even louder, and she collapses onto Rece, who doesn't stop moving.

Aurie pulls her head up and kisses Rece again, moaning all the time.

Rece cums, with Aurie following.

Once Aurie comes down from her orgasmic high, she moves off of Rece and moves so she can put her head on his chest.

"I love you so much, it's unreal."

Rece chuckles.

"Likewise. Now, how about we get some rest?"

Aurie hums in agreement and closes her eyes.

Rece yawns and pats Aurie's head before closing his eyes as well.

-segmentline-

Fizz walks through the portal into an incredibly dark area.

"Well, I didn't expect the title to be literal..."

He sees a small light in the distance in the form of a campfire.

"Guess those are the main characters. Why are they down here?"

He starts jogging torwards the fire when it suddenly goes out.

"Huh?"

He hears the reverb from his footsteps echo throughout the area.

"Oh. Fuck."

He tries to move quietly for the rest of way there, and looks over the remains of the fire.

"Shit. Did they run off? No, I would've heard the reverb..."

He gets hit in the head by something behind him and he collapses.

An inkling and an octoling stand over him.

"What do we do with him?"

"Tie him up. We'll ask him some questions."

Fizz passes out.

-segmentline-

"I miss the old days."

Anthony turns to Arron.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... Before everything. It all started with us, remember?"

Anthony nods.

"And then fizz met Marie again and everything spiraled out of control from there."

Arron sighs.

"I wish we could go back to before all of that. When it was just us playing turf wars. As friends."

Anthony frowns.

"You can't forget about last year though. We had just as many good times with Sarah and Aurie's group around."

"I guess. But it was so nice with it being just us. Us four taking on all the best turf war teams! And losing!"

Anthony laughs.

"I haven't seen fizz get angrier than when we lost to some of those teams."

Arron leans onto Anthony.

"I like the way things are now, I just wish we still had everyone here. Panda, Karl... Fizz..."

They hear a knock on their door, and Arron goes to open it.

"Sarah? What are you doing here?"

"I came to tell you something."

Arron frowns and gestures for Sarah to come inside.

She comes in and sits down, with Anthony moving over a bit to make room.

"What's up? I figured you would be... Moping?"

Sarah scoffs and elbows Anthony.

"Anthony, do you want fizz back?"

Anthony chuckles.

"Of course I want fizz back, what kinda question is that?!"

*6.*

Anthony jumps in his seat.

"The hell was that?!"

Sarah bursts out laughing, with Arron joining in after his initial shock goes away.

Anthony groans.

"Did you come over here just to prank me?"

Sarah shakes her head and composes herself.

"No, no, that's just the counter!"

"The counter?"

Arron calms down and looks intrigued.

"Does this have anything to do with the weird voices we hear sometimes?"

(How perceptive.)

Arron nods.

"That's what I thought."

(It's the counter to bring fizz back. Now, Arron, mind repeating what Anthony said?)

Arron shrugs.

"Of course I want fizz back, what kinda question is that."

*7.*

"OOOOH, I get it now!"

Anthony smiles.

"So... If this counter maxes out, we get fizz back?!"

(He was never dead, just moved. He's trapped there. Only a few more people left to go!)

Sarah nods.

"We just need to get 8 more."

Anthony nods.

"Oh, Sarah. Me and Arron need to talk to you."

Sarah turns her attention to Anthony.

"About what? This better not be about the attack-"

"No, no. It's about Hayden."

Sarah is suprised.

"What about her?"

"Just before the attack, me and Arron heard a knock at the door."

Arron nods.

"It was Hayden. She told me that she was tired of being constantly yelled at, so she ran away."

Sarah looks back and forth between the two.

"And she's in the bedroom right now, isn't she?"

Anthony nods.

"We're gonna take care of her for a bit, and I'm sure her parents are gonna check here at some point."

Arron sighs.

"We were wondering if you wanted to take her."

Sarah swerves around and stares at Arron in shock.

"Me? Oh nonono. I am no mother."

Arron shrugs.

"I know. But... We aren't exactly parent material either."

Sarah chuckles.

"You and Anthony are much better role models than me, the sex addict with the wrong body, and fizz, the crazy fuckhead with anger issues."

Arron is about to speak, but stops.

"You know, I just realized how perfect for each other you two are."

Sarah groans.

"Not the time. Look, me and fizz can talk it over when he's... alive. For now, the answer. Is no."

Anthony sighs.

"Alright. Think it over."

Sarah nods and turns to leave.

"Oh, Sarah?"

Sarah looks back at Anthony.

"If you're going to die in a few months, are you really only gonna spend it with fizz?"

Sarah smiles.

"I love him. I can think of no better way to spend my time."

Anthony slowly breaks into a smile.

"That's what I thought. You better fuck him back to death when he gets back."

Sarah smirks.

"We might pull an all-nighter. I'm sure he'll appreciate the surprise."

Arron shakes his head.

"You two and your dirty talk. Get the hell outta here."

Sarah chuckles and walks out, closing the door behind her.

Arron turns to Anthony and smiles.

"I want bubda back too!"

*8*

Arron's eyes widen and he looks torwards the hallway.

"What did Antony mean when he said 'fuck him back to death'?"

Anthony looks at Arron, who stares back at him.

"What do we do?"

Arron stutters for a moment.

Hayden walks closer to Arron and tugs on his leg.

"Aaron?"

Arron sighs.

"I'm not ready for this."

-segmentline-

Fizz tries to steady his head, which is throbbing.

"Ooog, what hit me...?"

"A splat charger. You know, the thing I'm aiming at your head?"

Fizz looks up, and sees an inkling who looks apprehensive at best, and an octoling who looks aggressive.

"I'm just-"

"No, we're asking the questions here."

Fizz sighs.

"Ask away..."

"Who are you?"

"Name's fizz. I'm dead. I think."

"Where are you from?"

Fizz looks up.

"Somewhere. Not sure where, you should ask octoling where I come from."

"Why were you following us?"

"Because it's really fucking dark down here."

The octoling punches him.

"Would you give us real answers?!"

Fizz looks between the two of them.

"Listen, lovebirds. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm just checking the place out and then leaving."

"LOVEBIRDS?!"

Fizz raisies an eyebrow.

"Are you guys not in love? Your romantic tension is through the roof right now."

They look at each other, blushing.

"I-No! We aren't d-dating!"

The inkling stays silent.

"Mhmm. Now, if you would just let me go..."

The octoling raises the splat charger again.

Fizz flinches.

"You should watch where you point that thing. You could hurt your boyfriend there."

The octoling screeches and hits fizz with the splat charger again.

Fizz groans in pain.

"One more time! Come on! Say it again!"

"Can you just let me go?"

The inkling shakes his head.

"Not until we know you're not dangerous."

Fizz sighs.

"I don't think I'm gonna be able to convince you of that."

"How unfortunate for you."

The inkling pushes down the charger, with the octoling looking at him in confusion.

"Supotca, I don't think he means any harm."

Fizz holds in a laugh.

"Yeah. I'm just looking around, I promise. N-nice name by the way."

Fizz lets out a small chuckle.

Supotca glares at him.

"Are you making fun of my name?"

Fizz laughs.

"Your name is almost an anagram for octopus, like c'mon now."

Supotca looks confused before she groans.

"Shut up."

The inkling pats her on the back.

"Don't touch me."

The inkling retracts.

"Alright, I'm just gonna untie fizz."

Supotca puts her hand in front of him.

"No, he's coming with us."

Fizz sighs.

"Look, I need to get back home, so if you could just hand me the small device you took off of me, I'll be on my way."

Supotca holds up the device.

"What, this?"

Fizz nods.

"Please don't break that, it's my only way home."

Supotca smirks and lifts it up.

Fizz and the inkling both go wide eyed.

"Look, supotca, right? It's very important that I get back. If you break that, I'm stranded here!"

"You can't keep him stranded here! He'll have to stay with us!"

Supotca groans.

"Are you on his side?!"

The inkling looks at Supotca and back to Fizz.

"Answer me Aoiko!"

Fizz frowns.

"Wait, hold on, that name means something..."

Supotca growls.

"Shut up!"

Fizz rolls his eyes.

Aoiko grabs the device while supotca is distracted.

"Hey!"

"You're not gonna break this. I'm keeping it with me."

He shoves it into his backpack.

"Ah! Blue squid! That's what your name means!"

They both look at fizz.

"What?"

"Aoiko. It means blue squid."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm not sure. I think one of my ancient language classes taught me that."

They both look confused.

"Don't worry about it. Can you just untie me now please?!"

Aoiko looks at Supotca, who scoffs.

"Fine."

Fizz sighs.

"Thank you."

Aoiko loosens the ropes, and fizz stands up.

"The device, please?"

Aoiko shakes his head.

Fizz glares at him.

"You're staying with us until we get back to inkopolis."

Fizz groans.

"How far away is it? We're underground, and I know the only to inkopolis is through that super jump pad."

Aoiko points to a steep hill.

"We're about to move up that hill. We stopped to eat."

Fizz looks around.

"Wait. Why is there a cliff only on this one side? How did I even get over here?"

Supotca shrugs.

"Doesn't matter. It's been a year since we both got stuck down here, if this leads out, I'm taking it."

Fizz nods.

"Fine, let's hurry."

They begin climbing, talking about what brought them here. Fizz leaves out many details.

"This is getting pretty steep."

Aoiko nods.

"That's a sign that we're getting closer to the surface. Be careful you two."

They move for a bit more.

"Supotca?"

"H-huh?"

"Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm fine..."

A loud noise suddenly erupts through the area, and a train whistle follows. Fizz yelps, and supotca nearly falls off the path.

"Don't fall!"

"I'm trying not to!"

Fizz feels an electric shock hit him, and he runs forward.

Aoiko and supotca are nearly pushed off by him.

They hear glass shatter.

They look at each other and run forward, only to see fizz petting an enormous zapfish.

Aoiko gasps.

"The great zapfish!"

Fizz chuckles.

"She was stuck in one of those glass ball things. Lucky us!"

Supotca goes to another side of the platform to look at it, when Aoiko screams.

Fizz turns to look at Supotca, who just fell through the platform.

"OH SHIT!"

Aoiko jumps down after her, and fizz looks around.

"Uh, uh, fuck!"

He looks at the great zapfish.

"Save them!"

The great zapfish does a small nod and bolts downwards.

Fizz looks at the place where Aoiko jumped off and he sees his device.

"What...?"

He picks it up.

"He must've taken it out before he jumped... What a legend!"

He looks over the edge.

"I hope they're ok. But... I am not going down there to find out."

He presses the return home button.

He feels a weird feeling envelope him, and he closes his eyes.

He takes a breath and opens them, and he's standing back in the void.

"Oh. That's fucking weird."

He walks out of the portal machine area, and sees octoling and inkling in their squid forms, cuddling.

He gasps, and grabs his chest.

Octoling turns back into humanoid form and runs over to fizz.

"What?! What's wrong?!"

Fizz coughs.

"I was not prepared for that level of adorable."

Octoling groans.

"Seriously?"

Fizz nods.

"Did you even see yourselves?!"

Inkling giggles as he walks over.

"We did look pretty cute."

Octoling rolls her eyes.

"He said he was cold."

Inkling nods.

"And I was. For about 5 seconds. After that it was just comfortable."

Octoling chuckles.

"Of course. Well, how was your visit?"

Fizz scoffs.

"I was tied up and interrogated, and then my interrogators fell off a ledge and probably died. Or maybe they didn't, I dunno, I didn't stay to find out."

Octoling frowns.

"Which fanfic did you go to?"

"Beneath inkopolis."

"Ah."

Octoling brushes off some dust off of fizz's tentacles.

"Well, stay with us a bit. We were just talking about inkling's world."

Fizz nods.

"Alright. Sure."

Fizz sits down, inkling sits next to him.

"So, inkling, how did you meet time and hopper?"

"That's a long story..."

(And one that starts in a place that you can't talk about. Skip forward a bit.)

Inkling nods.

"So, I was at my new home...


	17. Time ruins everything

( You guys like how much I'm talking in the story? I sure do. Let's revive Fizz already and move on to the bit where everything takes a swerve. )

-chapterstart-

Zoey knocks on the door to Sarah's apartment.

"Maybe she's not there?"

Zoey nods and takes out her phone.

"Hey, Sarah, where are you?"

She looks at John, who shrugs.

"I'm currently going to Aurie's place. Why?"

Zoey sighs.

"We wanted to talk to you."

"Why does everyone want to talk to me today? Whatever, I'll be back in a while. Let yourself in."

John pulls out his key.

"I guess we're gonna be waiting."

Zoey nods and grabs the key, unlocking the door.

"What should we do in the meantime?"

Zoey smirks and looks back.

John gulps.

"That's not a good idea..."

"Maybe not, but I feel like we deserve this."

"But what about-"

"I know. I guess we'll have to do it later."

John nods.

"So... What do you think happened?"

Zoey shrugs.

"Almost all the buildings in the square were destroyed, so they probably were using the buildings as cover when one came down on them."

John sits down.

"I just can't believe fizz is dead. He was always the one who came out of everything unharmed."

Zoey sighs.

"Except for recently. The concert, the train, he's been getting worse and worse."

John frowns.

"You're right... How bad did things have to get for him? It was bad for all of us too, but he was just fucked in every way possible."

Zoey snickers.

"I feel bad for him, but seriously, the amount of things that wanted him dead!"

John stares at her blankly.

Zoey frowns.

"Yeah, you're right, I shouldn't be laughing."

"I'm just surprised you can find any humor in that. You're good at finding a way to smile, aren't you?"

Zoey smiles.

"Always have, its helped me a lot."

"You should tell me about your school days sometime. I want to know how you found ways to smile then."

Zoey grins.

"My school days were great! My bro, Fizz and Rece helped with that though."

John sighs.

"Good for you. Mine were hell."

"How so?"

"I was the only guy in my class. In high school."

Zoey is confused for a moment.

"Oh. OOOH."

John nods.

"Yeah."

Zoey laughs.

"I think you might have a more interesting story than me."

John sighs.

"Maybe. Ooh, how about we tell them now?"

Zoey nods.

"Sure, we have time! Alright, so, it was middle school..."

-segmentline-

Sarah knocks on the door to Aurie's place.

See hears nothing for a minute, so she knocks again.

She hears groaning, and footsteps.

Aurie opens the door, with no clothes on.

"Hey Aurie. I wanted to talk to you."

"Ugh, sure, just give me a minute to wake up..."

She moves aside, and Sarah walks in.

"So, you're naked, and you were asleep. Sex?"

Aurie chuckles.

"Isn't that always the answer? Yes, me and Rece have been doing it quite a bit today."

On cue, Rece walks into the living room.

Sarah waves.

Rece waves his hand around, probably trying to wave back.

"Sarah... Hello..."

Sarah giggles.

"You look like shit, Rece. I think you need some sleep."

Rece mutters something and sits down next to Aurie.

"So, what did you wanna talk about?"

Sarah grins.

"I wanted to ask if you wanted fizz back."

"Of course I want him back, he was one of my best friends!"

*9*

Rece jumps, but aurie doesn't.

"Wha...! Loud..."

Rece collapses onto Aurie, who starts laughing.

"You're so cute when you're tired!"

Rece mumbles in annoyance, and raises his head up.

"I want my brother back..."

He slams his head back down.

*10*

(Making progress. Keep it up.)

Sarah nods.

"Where are Joey and zodiac? I want to get them to say it too."

"I think they said they were cleaning the mess in the square. I'll send em your way later, if you want."

"That would be perfect. I'll see you guys later!"

Aurie smiles and nods, and Rece groans.

Sarah gets up and goes out the door.

-segmentline-

"That's ridiculous. You survived a train crash? How?"

Fizz shrugs.

"Just lucky I guess. Unfortunately, that's where my luck ran out."

"What do you mean? You seem fine to me."

Fizz chuckles.

"I'm dead. At least that's what I thought."

Inkling pokes fizz's cheek.

"You seem alive to me..."

Octoling snickers.

"Well, he had some help not being dead. Real you kinda just plucked him out."

Inkling nods.

"I can see that. Real me hates it when a me dies, so he always gets around it somehow."

(Time's died 7 times already, and every time I have to bail him out. If he could stop running into everything...)

Fizz stands up.

"Well, I'm going again. Still plenty of fanfics to get through."

Octoling nods.

"Oh, do yourself a favor and don't go to 'an inkling of sympathy.' you'll die before you hit the ground."

"I wasn't planning on going there, I had another one in mind."

Fizz turns around and goes to the machine.

"I'd rather not get tied up again, so is 'taking in a stranger' a good one?"

Octoling nods.

"Yeah. Provided you don't get on Pearl's nerves."

Fizz nods and types in the command.

"I'll be back. See you guys."

He steps through the portal.

Octoling turns to inkling.

"So, you got any friends back in your universe?"

"A couple. I prefer to be mute, so finding someone who will be patient enough to deal with that is hard."

"You don't seem very mute. Do you not like talking?"

"It's the tentacle."

Octoling nods.

"It's kinda cute. It's way too big for your head, it's going all the way down to your neck!"

Inkling brushes the tentacle aside.

"I don't know why I have this, but when I met hopper, he told me it was because I was created in a hurry, and real me was not checking my design too much."

(I was panicking, alright? I didn't notice until after I finalized your design that I had fucked up a tentacle.)

"I don't mind it too much, but other people do. It kinda sucks."

Octoling pulls the tentacle up and looks under it.

"Why an octoling tentacle? If you fucked up a tentacle wouldn't it be an inkling tentacle? Just... Deformed?"

(Not really. That tentacle came first, when I figured I was making an octoling, but I changed my mind. So the rest ended up being inkling tentacles.)

Octoling shrugs.

"Well, there's no hiding you in a crowd. I like how it looks on you though."

Inkling smiles.

"I'm glad you like it. My friends tease me about it all the time, and it gets annoying. I'm glad someone likes how it looks."

Octoling grins and pets the tentacle, causing inkling to shiver.

"Hah... That's sensitive..."

Octoling backs off.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know."

"It's ok. Now, where were we?"

Octoling turns into octo-form, and holds out her tentacles.

Inkling smiles and turns into squid form before snuggling into her arms.

"So, what should we talk about now?"

"Uh...where are you from?"

"A terrible place."

Fizz steps out of the portal into an alley.

"Where is this...?"

He hears shuffling to his left and sees marina cowering for her life away from him.

"Ma-"

A noise from the front of the alley startles them both, and causing marina to yelp.

Pearl stands there, clearly confused.

"Pe-"

Pearl pulls out a blaster and aims it at Marina.

Fizz jumps in surprise and moves towards her, when she points it at him.

Marina starts crying.

Pearl looks behind fizz.

"W-why are you here?"

Fizz turns around and sees marina sobbing loudly on the ground.

"I-I saw The Squid sisters perform in Octo Valley, a-and it was so beautiful. I wanted to be like that too, I wanted to sing! But there isn't much place for singers in Octo valley. S-so I came here..."

Fizz wants to say something, but she starts speaking again.

"But it was stupid! To come here all by myself, right into enemy territory... What was I thinking..."

Fizz coughs, when pearl shoves him aside and sits next to Marina.

"I can help you..."

Fizz has a quick flashback to when Anthony found Sarah, and sighs.

"You would?"

"Y-yeah! I can get you back to octo valley, no problem."

Fizz groans.

"Can we skip the next 15 minutes of this conversation and just get somewhere safe?"

Pearl looks at fizz angrily, while marina seems terrified.

"Is he with you?"

"N-n-no... He came out of a p-portal over here... He scares me..."

Fizz chuckles.

"You know, I never thought I would see you two like this, especially after everything I've already been through..."

Pearl stands up.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Not important. Let's get back to your place, shall we?"

Pearl aims the blaster at fizz again.

"I'm not taking you anywhere."

Fizz gulps.

"Alright, I'm leaving, sheesh."

He pulls out the device.

"See ya."

He pushes the home button.

He opens his eyes to see octoling and inkling cuddling again.

"Could you two stop being so cute? It's giving me conniptions."

"You're mad about us being this cute?"

"No, it's reminding me of home and it makes me want to break something."

Inkling and octoling laugh.

-segmentline-

Sarah pushes open the door to her apartment, and looks torwards the couch.

"Hey Sarah. We were talking about our school days."

Sarah snickers.

"I remember my high school days were always about chasing someone. I guess I tripped over my own feet eventually, even though I ended up finding what I was looking for."

Zoey shrugs.

"We all have stories like that. Athough they end very differently."

John snorts.

"Yours ended about the same as Sarah's..."

Sarah looks confused.

"What do you mean?"

"He means nothing, RIGHT?"

John shrugs.

Zoey scowls.

"Well, anyway. What did you want to talk to me about?"

Zoey looks at her intensely.

"Well, we came over to see how you were handling what happened with fizz, but you seem to not be bothered at all..."

Sarah smiles.

"Do you want fizz back?"

Zoey is taken aback by the question.

"Uh... Yeah? Why wouldn't I?"

Sarah frowns.

"Say it."

Zoey frowns.

"I want fizz back...?"

"11.*

Zoey and John jump in suprise.

"Wha-What the hell was that?!"

Sarah chuckles.

"That gets better every time. It's the counter."

John groans.

"Is another problem we have to deal with? Because I am so tired of-"

"It's to bring fizz back. Tell em."

(Mhmm. It's true. Try it, John.)

"I want fizz back."

*12.*

(Almost done! Just a few more and fizz is back.)

Sarah grins excitedly, and sits down.

"We should gather everyone up for this, I'm sure everyone's gonna wanna see what happens!"

(Well, why not go to the square? That's where zodiac and Joey are.)

Sarah gasps.

"You're right! C'mon, let's go!"

Sarah grabs Zoey's hand and pulls her up, followed by Sarah dragging her out the door.

John blinks.

"Ah, ok. Guess I'll just... Walk."

He gets up and walks out the door.

-segmentline-

Fizz yawns.

"Traveling through all of this shit is tiring."

Octoling scoffs.

"Getting threatened on two different occasions will do that."

Fizz stretches out and lays himself down.

"I'll try some more tomorrow. One of those has to be a nice place."

Inkling turns into squid form and snuggles under fizz's arm.

"It's ok if I do this, right? I can't sleep unless there's pressure on me."

"Alright, you better not snore though."

He's already asleep.

Fizz chuckles.

"Figures. Are you gonna turn in?"

Octoling shakes her head.

"Nah. I got work to do. You guys enjoy your nap."

Fizz nods and shuts his eyes.

Octoling gets up and goes to the desk, pulling out a few papers.

"Hopper's at that meeting, so I guess I'll catalog the next few places he's going to go..."

She writes down a few things when hopper appears next to her.

Without looking up, she greets him.

Hopper points to fizz.

"He tired himself out, didn't he?"

Octoling nods.

"It always happens to the newbies. What's that thing he's holding?"

Octoling stops writing for a moment.

"It's a plush."

"But it's moving."

Octoling looks up at hopper, who's looking annoyed.

"Fuck off."

Hopper frowns.

"What's your problem? Whatever, I need to see how everyone's doing anyway."

He opens a portal, glares at octoling and leaves.

Octoling sighs.

"Dunno why I lied... Maybe for his safety."

Octoling looks over at fizz, or more specifically, inkling.

"We'll protect him. Time won't know what hit him!"

She writes the last thing on her papers, and puts them back.

"It's kinda nice to have someone to talk to in here for once... I hope fizz and inkling will stick around."

She rests her head on the desk.

"It gets lonely around here..."

-segmentline-

Sarah went back to every house she was at previously, grabbing the occupants.

Aurie happily came with, but she had to drag Rece out of the bed.

Anthony and Arron packed up some stuff for Hayden and came with as well.

"No."

Sarah groans.

Marie on the other hand...

"Marie, c'mon. Don't you want to see fizz come back?"

"Yes."

"Then come with us!"

"No."

Sarah bares her teeth.

"What's your fucking problem?!"

Marie does a slight grin.

Callie sighs.

"Marie, please. I know how you feel, but it's fizz."

Marie sighs.

"Fine. I'll go."

She gets up, and goes next to Callie.

They all make their way to the plaza.

Zodiac waves to them.

"Woah, bringing the party, huh?"

Sarah grabs him.

"Zodiac."

He looks at everyone.

"Yeah...?"

"Do you want fizz back?"

"I mean... Kinda? He was a bit of an asshole..."

Marie chuckles.

"But yeah, I guess I want him back."

*13.*

Zodiac huffs.

"Ugh, more shit. What is this?"

Joey comes over.

"Does anyone want to tell me why a loud as fuck 13 just rang through the plaza?"

Hey Joey, say you want fizz back."

Joey blinks.

"Uh... I want fizz back?"

*14.*

Sarah jumps.

"We did it!"

(No you didn't. 15, not 14.)

Sarah frowns.

"Wait, who's...?"

Hopper falls out of the sky, slamming on the pavement.

"Owowowow. That would be me..."

Sarah grins.

-segmentline-

"Fucker."

Fizz feels a foot collide with his stomach, and he yells out in pain.

He opens his eyes and looks up, with time glaring at him intensely.

"You thought you could hide him from me?!"

He holds up inkling, who's crying.

"F-Fizz! Please!"

Fizz is kicked again, and he groans.

"You aren't getting help from him."

Inkling screams and struggles as much as possible, but gives up after a moment and begins sobbing quietly.

Time suddenly stumbles forward and trips over fizz.

Octoling holds half of a vase, the other half shattered on the floor.

"You are not fucking killing him."

Time let go of inkling on the fall, and inkling scrambles to octoling, hiding behind her.

"Please don't let him kill me!"

Time groans and gets up, turning torwards octoling.

"Give him to me. now."

Octoling pushes inkling back a bit.

"Fuck off, time. This isn't necessary!"

Fizz slowly stands up.

"Why...do you want to kill... Him anyway?"

Time scoffs.

"He's a danger to the other me's! I need to teach him a lesson!"

Fizz laughs.

"That adorable little inkling is less dangerous than your appearance!"

Time growls and punches fizz, sending him flying to the left.

"WHO'S LAUGHING NOW, HUH?!"

He pulls out his gun, walks torwards her, and points it at octoling.

"I'll ask again. Give him to me."

Octoling spits in his face.

Time does nothing for a moment, before wiping his face and slamming the handle of his gun into octoling's head.

She falls over, holding her bruised head.

Time screams out in anger and hits her with the gun again.

And again.

And again.

Inkling screams and jumps on time, biting his neck, causing an alarmed cry.

Time tosses him off and points the gun at him.

"I'm sick of your shit! You should've never been created!"

He shoots his gun at inkling, who turns into squid form to dodge it.

He swims off, with time sprinting after him.

Octoling groans and looks at fizz, who isnt there.

"Where'd he...?"

She groans and grabs her head.

"Ow, fuck."

Inkling suddenly jumps on octoling's head, causing her to yell out in pain.

Time come over and points the gun at inkling.

"Well, I guess I'm having some collateral damage."

Octoling closes her eyes and braces for her death.

"NOT THIS TIME, TIME!"

A bullet hits time's robotic eye, causing it to shatter and blink out.

Time screams in agony, dropping his gun.

He grabs his eye, and turns to Fizz.

"You... Monster!"

Fizz spins the revolver he used, and throws it away.

"No. I'm not the monster here."

Time stands up, and grabs inkling off of octoling.

"All you inkling fucks are getting on my last nerve!"

Fizz scowls and raisies his middle finger at time.

Time chuckles.

"Well, it's too bad you threw your gun away, because now I get to leave!"

He quickly turns his hand into a portal gun, before octoling suddenly springs up from the ground and grabs him.

"Fizz! The gun!"

Fizz turns to the revolver he threw away, and quickly runs over and grabs it, pointing it at time.

"Alright, fine. I guess we're doing this the hard-"

A "ploomp" sound is heard, and fizz disappears.

Time starts chuckling, but eventually starts laughing, throwing octoling off of him.

"I'm done with you."

He goes over to his gun, picks it up, and aims it at octoling.

"Who cares if one less octoling is around?"

-segmentline-

Fizz opens his eyes and gasps.

"NO! OCTOLING!"

Everyone around him backs off, and hopper kneels next to him.

"What, what happened?"

"Time... He found inkling in the void with us..."

Hopper blinks.

"No. Oh no. Please. Please tell me he didn't do anything excessive."

Fizz looks at him with a sad frown.

Hopper stands up.

"No. NO. NO NO NO NO NO."

Hopper snaps his fingers several times, but it does nothing.

Hopper snaps his fingers desperately, until fizz grabs him in a hug.

Hopper collapses onto fizz, with fizz barely being to hold him up.

"She... Was my partner... She was there, for-for everything! She was everything I needed her to be and more!"

"She could still be alive! Maybe time just left her alone?"

A portal opens, and everyone turns torwards it.

Time walks out of it, smirking. Inkling is chained up next to him, and he's holding octoling over his back.

"So sorry hopper, I had things to take care of, and your assistant got in my way."

Time tosses octoling's body onto the ground, and a bullet hole can clearly be seen penetrating her head.

Time shrugs.

"I'm sure you'll find another one. There's plenty out there after all."

He drags inkling off into the portal.

Hopper kneels down over octoling.

"I did this."

Fizz steps forward.

"Hopper, no-"

"I gave time the tracker he used to find inkling. He said he was just going to talk to him."

Sarah goes up next to fizz.

"Could-could someone explain...?"

Hopper starts crying, not moving from his position.

Fizz sighs.

"Everyone, go home."

Everyone looks at each other and mumbles.

"NOW."

Everyone nods slowly and disperses.

Except for Sarah.

"Fizz..."

Sarah. Please, just... Let me handle this."

Sarah tears up, gives fizz a kiss on the cheek, and leaves.

Fizz kneels down on the other side of the body, which hopper is still crying over.

"Hopper, this can't be acceptable. Why is time allowed to get away with something like this?"

"Because he was the first, and he was the one to introduce us into this circle anyway..."

Fizz sighs.

"I don't think giving a me that kind of control is a good thing."

(Tell me about it. I didn't think there would be so many of you fuckers when I first thought of him.)

Hopper stands up.

"Well, assuming time is going to kill inkling when he gets back to his universe, we would be down to 6."

(Nah. 7.)

Hopper looks confused.

"But there's only 7 of us?"

(Have you looked in front of you recently?)

Hopper looks at fizz.

"But I thought-"

(Yeah, well, things have changed, haven't they?)

"I suppose so..."

Fizz coughs.

"Do I need to be informed of anything?"

(You're now the 8th, or possibly 7th, me in the "main group". Congrats. Now go get inkling back.)

"Is he dead?"

(No, time can't figure out where your universe exactly is, fizz. So he's having a hard time calculating how to get back. You should have some time.)

Hopper gasps.

"Wait, if he's in the main group..."

(Yep. He can travel universes now.)

Fizz goes wide eyed.

"Wait, what?! Seriously?!"

Hopper jumps up.

"And, because time doesn't know yet, we can catch him by surprise!"

Fizz looks confused.

"Why can't you use your powers?"

Hopper groans.

"My magic is slightly unstable, and if I'm stressed out to an enormous extent, my magic kinda... Disappears for a bit."

Fizz looks at his hands.

"So, what do I do?"

(Clap.)

Fizz raises an eyebrow.

"So, Everytime I clap, a portal to another universe will show up?"

(No, only when you want it to. And remember to picture where you want to go.)

Fizz closes his eyes, and after a moment, claps.

A portal in a dark blue tint appears in front of him.

Hopper whistles.

"Damn, nice dude. It took me a couple tries the first time. Also, dark blue Really suits you."

"Thanks. Now, how's about we go get inkling back, eh?"

Hopper grins, and his eye starts glowing blue.

"Yes. Let's."


	18. The retrieval and the truth

( Did I skip a day? I honestly don't remember if I did. Whatever, things are beginning to wrap up! Only two more chapters to go, and then... Well I'll talk about that in the final chapter. For now, the retrieval of inkling begins!)

-chapterstart-

"Who was that?"

"I've never seen hopper cry before..."

"Why was fizz so concerned?"

Sarah listens to all these questions and remarks from the others as she stares at the ground.

"If she's dead... Did she go to the death area...?"

Everyone looks at Sarah.

Zoey shrugs.

"You're the only one who's been there and back, what do you think?"

Sarah looks up.

"Well, the only people there are people that relate to all of us, and since none of us know that octoling..."

Anthony nods.

"Yeah, but fizz knew her. So she's probably up there."

"Why don't you guys just ask the weird voice that knows everything?"

Everyone turns to marina and pearl, who walk to them.

Sarah tilts her head.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"We got some calls about commotion in the square. We figured it had to be you guys."

Callie waves.

"They've got a point though."

(Of course they do. Now, what's your question?)

"Is that octoling in the death zone?"

(...)

"Well?"

(No...? I'm looking at the zone, but I don't see her. Odd. I thought she's would've gone there.)

Here, I'll go get a closer look.

-segmentline-

Karl is playing a short Melody on a trumpet.

Tori is clearly agitated, and she has her ears covered.

"WOULD YOU STOP PLAYING THAT STUPID TRUMPET?!"

"What? If it's gonna show up, I'm not just gonna leave it here."

"IF YOU PLAY ONE MORE NOTE I WILL TAKE THAT FUCKING THING AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT!'

"How many people ready to rock the house?"

Karl smiles at panda.

"Ah, a man of culture I see."

"DONT ENCOURAGE HIM!"

Marshall snickers.

"Oh no, please, keep going. It's sounds great to me."

Zack and Nathan, who are hanging in the corner, both giggle.

"Yeah! C'mon, keep going!"

Tori groans.

"I hate all of you."

Karl starts playing his trumpet again.

Nope. Also, where the hell is aulbrey? Didn't she die as well?

(If she did, she would be in the dead zone. So I guess she's not dead. Goodie.)

Sarah twitches.

"Well, I'm gonna go find her then, I am not letting her pull a Nathan."

Anthony nods.

"I'm coming with."

Arron says the same.

Sarah smiles.

Zodiac shakes his head.

"I'm not gonna get involved in this. I'm going home."

Everyone else agrees.

Pearl snaps her fingers.

"If you can bring her to us, we can have her arrested. So... Yeah."

They walk off.

Sarah huffs.

"I don't even know where to start."

Anthony thinks for a second.

"What about Victoria?"

Arron nods.

"Yeah. She can track aulbrey's number so we can find her."

Sarah smirks.

"So, we're gonna go get help from my mom?"

They both nod.

"Alright. Let's hope she's at her house then."

Arron looks at the time.

"Maybe we should get some sleep first...?"

Sarah looks at her phone.

"10:47?! How the hell..."

"It's been a long day."

Sarah sighs.

"Alright, let's meet here tomorrow then."

They wave to each other and start walking home.

So, what's the plan here?

(What do you mean?)

You're almost setting up another story here. When's it gonna end?

(Soon. I'll clean up the two things I just introduced, and that'll be it.)

And then what? I just die while everyone else gets to live on?

(You're part of the universe idiot, you'll stay here and narrate the rest of their lives.)

And when they die?

(I'll be dead, and none of this will exist anymore.)

Wow. Alright, let's do this!

-segmentline-

Fizz and hopper exit the portal and end up in what looks like a club.

"Uh, I wanted to go where time was?"

Hopper looks around.

"This is the club where all the non-important me's hang out. Why would he be here...?"

~You're under the strobe! Light!~

Fizz looks at the DJ booth, seeing what looks like a him with crooked sunglasses.

"What's the story behind this place?"

Hopper chuckles.

"It was created for all the me's that were created half hazardly. They all only have one discernable personality trait."

"And they mostly hang around here?"

"Mhmm. I come here every so often for free drinks."

"Alcoholic?"

"Yep. Calms my nerves on a bad day. I don't do it often, don't worry."

Fizz looks at the bar, and sees time talking to the bartender, with inkling chained to the seat next to him.

"Hopper. Look."

He turns, and nods.

"Inkling's chained to the seat, so just taking him and leaving is out. We're gonna have to get... Creative."

Fizz lifts up the gun.

"No, don't shoot that in here. We have security for this place."

Fizz groans and flips the gun over.

"Hmm. Maybe. But time's experienced enough blunt trauma to absorb a few hits."

Hopper snaps his fingers.

"Buuuuut, most people in here aren't! We can create a diversion. Time is extremely protective of other me's."

"Could've fooled me."

Hopper sighs.

"Fizz, I know time may seem like a bad guy, especially after today, but he's really not. He's just a bit... Excessive."

Fizz glares at hopper.

"I'm not changing my opinion of him."

"Fair. Here, let me set the mood."

He snaps his fingers, and the DJ nods and changes the song.

~I'm a pal imitater of a boy in the sky~

Fizz looks at hopper, confused.

"Trust me on this."

Hopper looks around.

"Where is he... Ah!"

Hopper grabs fizz and turns him around, where a Chase is stumbling around.

"That's who we'll knock out. You get near him, I'll give you the signal when I get over to time."

Fizz nods and walks over to the drunk chase, who mumbles something.

Hopper goes on the other side of the bar, out of sight of time, and gives a nod to fizz.

Fizz takes a deep breath.

"Sorry about this, buddy!"

He slams the gun into his head, knocking him out instantly.

Hopper gestures for fizz to run to him.

Fizz drops the gun and runs over.

Security from outside runs in and sees the chase knocked out, and calls for a doctor.

Time looks behind him and sighs.

"Another one? It never end around here..."

He walks off, and hopper grins.

"Now's our chance! C'mon!"

They scoot over to inkling, who looks up at them in shock.

"Hopper? Fizz?! How did you find me?!"

Hopper smiles.

"Say hello to number 8!"

Inkling gawks at fizz.

"No way."

Hopper grabs the lock.

"Fuck, how do you open this?!"

Fizz rolls his eyes, takes the scrunchie holding his tentacles up off, and starts messing with it.

Hopper stares at him.

"What are you doing?"

Fizz inserts the scrunchie into the lock and carefully moves it around.

The lock clicks, and opens.

Hopper blinks.

"How."

Fizz stuffs the scrunchie in his pocket.

"School taught me a lot of things. I think I learned more outside of school in those days though."

"Have you done this before?!"

"Yeah, I had to break into the school once. Long story. Not the point, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

Hopper rips the chains off of inkling and grabs him.

"Clap!"

Fizz closes his eyes again, holding an image of the void in his head.

A gunshot rings out, snapping fizz out of his thoughts.

Time shot his gun upwards.

He pulls it down and points it at fizz.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Fizz brushes his unkept tentacles out of the way.

"Taking my friend back. Why are you being so persistent?!"

Time scoffs.

"What? You weren't persistent when you went after Marshall? When you fought Nathan both times? When you killed Tori? I'm protecting what I care about, fizz. Something you know very much about."

"This... This is different!"

"Is it? Is it really? Shall we test that?"

Time snaps his fingers and he becomes transparent, along with fizz.

"Let's revisit some of these moments, hmm?"

Time grabs fizz by the arm and throws him forward.

Fizz is staring right at himself.

"Wha-"

The past fizz walks through him, and he shivers.

"3 years ago. September. That turf war match."

Fizz goes wide eyed and looks around.

"Saltspray rig... My most hated map..."

He hears the same thing said behind him.

He sighs.

He walks through the map, watching as players run around, before stopping at the overlook for the lower part of the map.

"Any minute now."

Time shows up next to him.

"You may think I make my judgments on impulse, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I make my decisions from experience."

Fizz glares at him.

"You're quite cute, you know that?"

Fizz recoils in suprise.

"Athough that's more of an inkling thing than a you thing. All well."

"Woah! What are you doing?"

Fizz turns around.

Past fizz has Tori pinned down, pointing the weapon at her.

"You think you can just insult my friend like that?! Right after she goes missing no less?!"

"She deserves to be missing. She was a piece of shit anyways."

Everything freezes.

Time points at the other side of the outlook.

"Look."

Fizz looks over. Karl is standing there, watching.

"Wait, I thought he said he didn't come until after...?"

Time snickers.

"He lied. He lied to protect you after you did something terrible."

Fizz looks down.

"But..."

Time stands up.

"Now, for this bit. She's insulting you, and Zoey. You lose your mind, and you kill her. Like so!"

Everything unfreezes, and fizz looks at himself to see him start bashing Tori's head in with the weapon.

He looks away.

"Now, who could possibly trust you after this? I wouldn't. I'm sure many people wouldn't."

Time points at Karl, who is staring at past fizz in shock.

"But he did. And he saved your life."

Fizz sighs.

"Why are showing me this?"

Time crosses his arms.

"This isn't the first time inkling has almost killed another me. In fact, it's the forth. How long until this happens? And hopper becomes what Karl was?"

Time snaps his fingers again. They are at the foot of inkopolis tower.

"Now, I'll be honest, I thought this was badass. But that didn't make it any less wrong."

Fizz looks up the stairs just in time for Marshall to be sent tumbling down them.

He lands in between him and time, twitching and leaking ink profusely.

Fizz gags.

Time nods.

"You went after him because he indirectly killed your lover. Understandable. But... You took it too far."

Fizz frowns.

"Wait. This isn't what I'm doing in the present... It's what you're doing!"

Time shakes his head.

"No. This is what I did in the past."

Fizz looks suprised.

"A couple of years ago, a couple of people I really cared about were murdered by a serial killer in another universe. I found that killer and I chopped his head off."

Fizz is really suprised now.

"Revenge is sweet. But it's also extremely wrong. I had no right to kill that man, I was worse than him for doing it. You had the exact same thought process I did."

Fizz frowns.

"Then why are you trying to kill inkling now?!"

Time raises an eyebrow.

"Kill inkling? Why would I do that? I was trying to talk some sense into him."

"What about all the threatening and gun pointing?"

"I was trying to get him to stand still. Things could've gone better, I get that."

"And... Octoling?"

Time shrugs.

"She got in my way. Besides, octolings are replaceable."

"Oh, I know you did not just say that."

Time frowns.

"What? They're all the same."

"The octoling you killed? Was Hopper's closest friend and partner, who he rescused from an execution in her home fanfic."

Time blinks.

"Oh. Shit, well..."

Fizz laughs.

"See, you're over here trying to show me my flaws, when you can't even recognize your own!"

Time facepalms.

"Alright, you know what? Fine. You can take inkling back, on the condition he is NOT ALLOWED in any universes aside from Hopper's and yours."

Fizz nods.

"Alright."

"I'll see what I can do about getting that octoling back alive. I'm usually pretty good at that."

(Fuck off.)

Time snickers.

"Alright. Let's go."

He snaps his fingers, and they're back in the bar.

Fizz smiles at hopper, who grins back.

Time waves them off.

"Well, go on, I'm sick of you."

Hopper snaps his fingers and teleports away.

Fizz claps, and a portal appears, which he goes into.

Time sits at the bar.

"How heavy?"

"Extremely. Give me the hardest drink you got."

-segmentline-

Hopper arrives in the void, followed closely by fizz.

Hopper sets inlking down.

"Oh, thank you guys so much!"

Inkling gives fizz a hug, with Fizz patting his head.

"It wasn't really a problem..."

Hopper sighs.

"For us maybe, octoling had some problems."

Fizz grins at Hopper.

"Oh, time said he was gonna look into getting her back."

Hopper raisies an eyebrow.

"He better not turn her into a fucking cyborg."

(I wouldn't worry about that.)

"Uh... Why?"

Octoling appears in the middle of fizz and hopper, startling them both.

(Because he already revived her. You do remember the whole thing about 'the damage is reversible' thing that time said he was going to do to his bullets, right?)

"He actually figured it out? Damn, good for him."

(Enjoy the happy ending, I figured someone could use one.)

Octoling blinks.

"I'm so confused, was I dead? Because I could've sworn I was dead."

Hopper picks her up into a hug, which she returns.

"No, and I doubt you're gonna be dying anytime soon on my watch."

"Always so protective. I spend most of my time in here, how the hell am I gonna end up dying?"

Fizz raisies his hand.

"Don't answer that."

Hopper puts octoling down, but she is immediately tackled by inkling.

"Ow, hey inkling, how's it going?"

Inkling turns into squid form and starts flopping on her chest.

Octoling laughs.

"You're so adorable!"

She picks him up and squeezes him.

Fizz snaps his fingers.

"Just remembered. Another rule, inkling can't go to any universes besides mine, yours, and his own."

Hopper shrugs.

"That only removes two others honestly. That's not a bad agreement."

"I don't mind. Those are the three best ones anyway!"

Fizz stretches out.

"Well, I'm going home. I want to sleep on a fucking bed tonight."

"You've been here for one day."

"Yeah, and I took a nap. I don't know how either of you can sleep like that."

Hopper shrugs.

"I honestly don't remember the last time I slept."

Octoling cracks her back.

"And I've slept on way worse. So..."

Fizz smirks and claps, a portal appearing next to him.

"So... Where can I go with this?"

"Any of our universes, and a couple side places approved by me and time."

Fizz nods.

"How interesting..."

He goes through.

Hopper picks up inkling.

"So, where are you gonna go?"

"Home. But I'll be back!"

Hopper smiles.

"I'm sure she'll be looking forward to it."

Octoling glares at him.

"What? Are you not?"

Octoling groans.

Inkling giggles and squid jumps away.

Octoling watches him jump away.

"Is that really how he gets around?"

"Mhmm. It's unique for all of us, if you didn't notice."

"Speaking of which, I've got the next few fanfics lined up for you."

She goes over to the desk and grabs the paper.

"You'll like these ones."

Hopper looks at the paper.

"Road to recovery?! The sequel to mending time?!"

"Yep."

Hopper pumps his fist.

"Fuck yes. See you in a bit!"

He snaps his fingers and disappears.

Octoling chuckles.

"What a day."

"How so?"

She looks behind her, and Marie and Callie are setting down some items.

"Well, I died. And then- you know what? I'll just let hopper tell it when he gets back."

Marie blinks.

"Yeah..."

Octoling sits in the chair next to the desk and puts her feet up.

"So where have you two been?"

"Around. We went back to our old universe to grab a few things."

Octoling nods.

"So you were being extremely careful then? No wonder you took so long."

Callie sighs.

"I'm gonna miss that place."

Marie pats Callie on the shoulder.

"You two could always go to the one that wasn't broken. You just have to make sure you aren't seen. At all."

"Yeah, but that's more trouble than it's worth."

Octoling shrugs.

"Then relax for a bit. Hopper just entered another fanfic, so he'll be gone for a while."

They both nod and walk off.

"~Oh Stylo... Go forth and blossom in your soul... When you know your heart is light... Electric is the love!~"

She sings quietly to herself, until she falls asleep in the chair.

-segmentline-

Fizz comes through the portal into his room, where he yawns loudly.

"Fuck, I need some sleep."

The door opens behind him, and Sarah peeks in.

"Fizz!"

She opens the door fully and squeezes him tightly.

"Oof! Hey..."

"Did you take care of whatever that was?"

Fizz nods.

"I'm here to stay. Until I decide I want to go back."

Sarah looks at him, worried.

Fizz smiles, and claps.

The portal appears next to them, and Sarah gawks.

"Woah...!"

"Yeah. I can go back and forth now."

He claps again, and the portal closes.

"Don't worry, I'm not planning to leave you behind."

Sarah grins and kisses fizz, pushing him torward the bed.

They fall onto the bed, and Sarah breaks off.

"I am so fucking horny."

Fizz chuckles.

"Yeah, I figured. You're not gonna let me go to sleep until we fuck, right?"

Sarah responds by tearing off her top and kissing fizz again.

She breaks off again to quickly slide off her shorts.

"You're eager, aren't ya?"

Sarah moans, and pulls fizz's lower clothing down, exposing his dick.

She greedily starts licking the tip, quickly moving on to the whole thing.

"Ooh..."

She doesn't stick with that as she takes it into her mouth.

She travels up and down, circling her tongue around it at the same time.

Fizz muffles a moan, and puts a hand on Sarah's head to get her moving faster.

Sarah complies, speeding her pace up a bit.

Fizz sighs, leaning back and doing small thrusts into Sarah's mouth.

Sarah suddenly picks up speed again, catching fizz off guard.

"That's soooo good... Gonna cum..."

Sarah grins and slams her head down, making fizz gasp.

He cums, with Sarah drinking all of it.

She gets up again, wiping the small bit of blue off her chin.

"Don't tell me you're done already!"

Fizz takes a deep breath.

"No, I'm good, that just took a ton out of me."

Sarah smirks, and tears off the last piece of clothing she had on, before jumping on fizz.

She makes out with fizz again, using her hands to rub his dick behind her.

She breaks off, gets up, and lowers herself onto him.

She moans loudly.

"Oooh, this new body was a virgin..."

She moans again, slowly moving herself up.

Fizz lifts himself up and starts sucking on Sarah's tit, when Sarah moans even louder than before, as she orgasms.

Fizz stops sucking for a moment.

"You ok?"

"Hah... I've never felt that sensitive before... It felt SO. GOOD."

Fizz smiles and resumes his actions, as Sarah quickens her pace.

Sarah cums again soon after, letting out a long drawn out moan.

She collapses onto fizz, who takes over by thrusting into her roughly.

"Yes~ yes~! More~!"

Fizz starts moving faster, much to the delight of Sarah, who's moaning non-stop.

She grabs fizz for another kiss, savoring the drawn out moment of ecstasy for them both.

Fizz doesn't last very long after that, and he cums hard, with Sarah giggling the whole time.

"Hehehe~ feels so good~!"

She lifts herself off, with some of his fluids dripping out of her.

She falls backwards, her face covered with bliss.

Fizz gets up and inserts himself back in, with Sarah practically screaming in pleasure.

"YES! PLEASE, FUCK ME MORE~!"

Fizz doesn't bother starting slow, and is already slamming himself in and out.

Sarah can't feel anything but pleasure at this point, and she looks completely out of it.

"More~ don't stop~ don't ever stop~!"

Fizz bends down more and starts going as fast as he possibly can, causing Sarah to actually scream. She cums, and she doesn't stop cumming.

Fizz slams into her one last time before releasing everything he has left into her.

They both come down from their extended orgasms, fizz pulling out and moving next to Sarah.

"You content now?"

Sarah moans again, before pulling fizz in for another kiss.

"I love you so much..."

"I love you too."

They pull the blanket over themselves, cuddle up, and relax.


	19. Keeping a hunt, finishing for once

( This is it, the final chapter. Well, the final full chapter anyway. There's one more after this that I still have to write, so I may or may not have it by tomorrow. Let's wrap this up, once and for all.)

-chapterstart-

The next morning arrives, and Anthony and Arron are enjoying their peaceful sleep.

Until Hayden jumps on their bed and slaps them both awake.

"I'm hungry."

Anthony groans.

"Who's turn is it?"

"Mine... I got it..."

Arron crawls out of bed, and walks out the door, with Hayden following.

Anthony rolls over and closes his eyes again.

Arron moves into the kitchen, grabbing all the ingredients for pancakes.

"How's pancakes?"

"Yes! Yes!"

Arron rubs his eyes.

"Alright, give me about 10 minutes, ok?"

Hayden nods and goes into the living room.

Arron looks at his phone, and sees a notification from fizz's parents.

"Do you guys know where Hayden is? We can't find her anywhere."

Arron gulps.

"What do I tell them...?"

He picks up his phone and starts typing a message.

"Did you guys lose her?"

He sets his phone down and goes back to cooking.

Hayden walks into the kitchen.

"Are they done yet?"

"Has it been 10 minutes?"

"...no."

"Exactly. I'll let you know when they're ready."

Hayden whines, and goes back into the living room.

Arron's phone buzzes.

"No, she ran away. We've looked everywhere here and we can't find her. We thought she would've run to one of you guys?"

Arron taps the counter.

"There is no easy way out of this."

He tries to think of a message to send that will throw them off, but he can't.

"Fuck, why couldn't I have been a better liar!"

He hears the timer beep for the pancakes, and he pulls them off the pan.

"Pancakes are ready!"

"YAAAAAYYY!"

Hayden runs to the table and jumps into one of the chairs.

Arron cuts up two of the pancakes and puts them in front of Hayden.

"Want any syrup?"

"Yes!"

Arron stares at her.

Hayden looks at him, confused.

"Aaron? ...oh! Please?"

Arron smiles and nods, going to get the syrup from the fridge.

"Warm or cold?"

"Warm!"

He pours the syrup into a small cup and puts in the microwave for a moment.

He then brings it to Hayden.

"Careful, don't spill that."

Hayden nods and begins eating.

Arron goes back to the bedroom.

He pokes Anthony, who groans.

"Yeah?"

"Her parents are asking us about Hayden."

Anthony sits up.

"Shit. Have you told them anything?"

"No."

Anthony sighs in relief.

"Alright good, you're a terrible liar."

Arron frowns.

"What? It's true."

Arron rolls his eyes.

"So what do we tell them?"

"Well, we could tell them we don't have her, and she didn't come to anyone else here."

"Would they believe that?"

"I dunno. It's a bit of a stretch."

Arron shrugs and sends it.

"Did you leave Hayden unattended?"

Arron blinks.

"If she spilt that syrup..."

He gives Anthony his phone and runs out.

Anythony snickers, when the phone buzzes.

"Damn it! Where did she fucking go?! We'll keep searching around here then, she's probably just hiding from us."

Anthony smiles.

"That'll give us some time."

-segmentline-

Sarah wakes up to find fizz no longer next to her.

"Hmm? Fizz?"

She sits up and looks around.

"I'm in the kitchen!"

She grins and gets out of bed, runs to the kitchen, and grabs fizz in a tight hug.

"Fizz!"

"Yeah?"

"I love you!"

Fizz chuckles.

"I love you too. Now, can you let me go so I can finish making my toast?"

Sarah lets him go.

"So eager to get out here you didn't bother with clothes, huh?"

Sarah looks down.

"Oh. Forgot about that. Eh, we still got a few hours until I have to meet up with Anthony and Arron."

"What are you meeting them for?"

Sarah cracks her knuckles.

"We're going to look for aulbrey, since she apparently survived."

Fizz crushes the piece of bread he was holding.

"Excuse me?"

Sarah blinks.

"Oh that's right you didn't know about that..."

Fizz groans.

"Fuck, alright. This better be the last thing we have to do."

Sarah nods.

"Oh, but the way, what did you do while you were stuck in the void?"

"I went through some fanfics. Hopper has this machine that lets you go to any one he's been to."

"How did that go?"

"It could've gone better."

Sarah chuckles.

"I kinda want to see some of these fanfics."

"Not while you're naked."

Sarah leans on the wall.

"Obviously! I'm just saying, maybe you could take me through some."

"Sure."

He put the bread into the toaster.

"Oh, also, first chance we get, we're talking to Zoey about keeping you alive."

Sarah nods.

"And about getting my body back. This body's nice, and after last night I now know I'm incredibly sensitive, but I want my old one back."

"Yep. Athough that may not be possible."

Fizz grabs his phone.

"Here, I'll text her about it."

Fizz: hey, Zoey. Any idea when we'll start the whole keeping Sarah alive thing?

Zoey: I've already had her old body transfered to the lab. I'll see what I can do.

Fizz: also, why is Sarah's new body so sensitive?

Zoey: she's got the tentacles of multiple squids and octopi inside her, one of them was probably sensitive.

Fizz: cool. Let us know if you figure out anything.

Fizz sets the phone down.

"She already has your body in the lab, she's working on it right now."

Sarah smiles.

"So what should we do now?"

The toaster pops.

"Well, I have toast to eat. After that? No idea."

Sarah smriks.

"I know what we can do~"

Fizz takes a bite of his toast.

"Sure."

Sarah grins and walks off.

Fizz shakes his head and takes another bite.

"She's quite eager. Then again, considering everything, I don't blame her."

He hears a knock at the door.

"Hmm?"

He goes over and opens it, and sees Marie.

He chokes on a piece of his toast.

"MMF. Marie! Hi!"

She stares at him blankly.

"Come...in?"

Marie pushes past fizz and sits down on the couch.

"Are you ok...?"

Marie huffs.

"Oh, you know, Sarah's alive."

Fizz is confused for a moment.

"Oh shit, I fucking forgot..."

Marie rolls her eyes.

"I get you want to be with her, but you can't just discard me."

Fizz brushes his hands through his tentacles.

"I was not prepared, dying kinda threw me off."

Marie nods.

"I understand. But all that's resolved now, you have to deal with this."

Fizz sighs.

"Sarah? Can you come out here for a second?"

"Why?"

"We have to talk."

He hears shuffling, and sees Sarah peek around the corner. She sees marie, and quickly slips back into the hallway.

She comes back out a second later with clothes.

"Marie?"

"Sarah."

"I guess it's time then?"

Marie nods.

Fizz groans.

"Damn it, I don't want to deal with this."

"You're gonna have to."

He runs his hands through his tentacles.

"I just realized I never put the scrunchie back on. Hmm. I kinda like them this way."

"Stop. You're avoiding the topic."

Sarah walks over to Fizz and drags a hand across one of his tentacles.

"You should keep it like this. It looks cute."

Fizz nods.

"Now, Marie, you have to understand. I thought Sarah was dead."

"Yes, I get that."

Sarah sighs.

"I'm sorry I kinda took fizz from you so suddenly, but if it's any confort, I may die in a few months again..."

Fizz shakes his head.

"Not letting that happen."

Sarah smiles and leans her head on him.

Marie puts her head down for a second.

"I can accept that you want to stay with Sarah, but you have to at least break up with me."

Fizz taps his fingers together.

"Do...do I have to?"

Marie nods.

Fizz sighs.

"Marie."

She looks him in the eyes.

"I am breaking up with you."

She nods.

"I understand. Keep me in your mind, alright?"

She gets up and walks out.

Fizz puts a hand over his eyes.

He mumbles something, and goes over to the stereo, turning on a song.

He sits on the couch, and stares at the ceiling as the song plays.

Sarah waits for about a minute before sitting on the couch next to him.

"You ok?"

Fizz lets out a small chuckle.

"No, not really."

Sarah hums in agreement, and leans onto him.

"~Broken... Our love... Broken~"

Sarah sighs.

"If it feels that bad for you-"

"No, it's just... I feel bad for Marie."

Fizz starts rubbing Sarah's tentacles, earning small purrs.

"She'll find someone. She smart, she's pretty, I'm honestly suprised she hasn't found someone yet."

"I guess."

She turns and looks at him.

"Hey."

Fizz looks at her.

"Everything's alright."

Fizz smiles. A warm smile, one that he hasn't had in a long time.

Another song begins, and fizz hums in enjoyment.

"Ever heard this song?"

"No, what's it called?"

"To binge. It's a song about love, I think.

Sarah grins.

"It sounds nice."

Fizz nods.

"It's part of the plastic beach stuff. You know, Stylo, some kind of nature, those kinds of songs."

Sarah relaxes into fizz some more.

"Do you ever wish that we could've lived our lives without all this garbage?"

Fizz nods.

"All the time. But... We would've never met without all this garbage."

"How so?"

"I was the one who pushed you into that grate. I punched the faggot who turned you down, and he knocked you in."

Sarah looks at him, with a blank stare on her face.

"I love you."

Fizz closes his eyes and sighs.

"And it feels so nice."

Sarah looks at fizz with a small smile on her face. She doesn't want to be anywhere else.

She pokes fizz's cheek, who opens his eyes and looks at her.

She grins, and slowly moves for a kiss.

It's soft, like the intension is purely romantic. They enjoy the moment, and disconnect.

"I don't think I've ever been this happy."

Sarah frowns.

"Don't say that, it means it won't get any better!"

Fizz laughs.

"I want this to last. I don't ever want to move."

Sarah puts her head back on his chest.

"Neither do I."

They say nothing for a while, letting the music play.

"I. Love. You."

Sarah purrs.

-segmentline-

"Aaron? Where's the remote?"

Arron peeks into the living room.

"It should be on the table..."

Hayden points to the table.

"No."

Arron shrugs.

"I dunno. Maybe it fell on the floor or something."

"What time are we meeting Sarah again?"

"No idea."

Anthony rolls his eyes and texts them.

"I thought sawah was on vacation?"

Arron blinks.

"Oh, she came back early..."

"Why does she look so different though?"

"Makeover."

Hayden clearly doesn't accept that answer.

"Ok..."

She grabs the remote off the floor and turns the channel.

Arron sighs.

"We're meeting them at around 1:00. Apparently they're having a romantic moment right now, and they don't want to let it go."

Arron nods.

"Getting interrupted during those moments is hell. And we should know!"

"I mean, our interruption was a lot worse than it should've been."

Arron suprises Anthony by suddenly kissing him.

He pulls away and smirks.

"At least now we can have as many romantic moments as we want."

Anthony grins and pulls him back in.

They kiss for almost a minute.

They pull apart.

"So, what do we do in the meantime?"

Arron smiles.

"How about nothing?"

Anthony grins and nods.

"Yeah. Sounds good."

They walk over to the couch.

"What are you watching?"

"Squids and kids."

"What's it about?"

"It's a sitcom about high school."

Anthony nods.

"Well, let's see if it's any good, hmm?"

They relax into the couch.

-segmentline-

Octoling hears a loud splash, waking her up.

"Mm? Who's there?"

Inkling appears next to her.

She yelps and falls backwards.

Inkling kneels next to her.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

Octoling rubs her head, and waves him off.

"It's fine, just don't startle me when I'm balenced like that..."

Inkling nods and helps her up.

"So what are you doing back so soon?"

"I figured you would be bored."

Octoling bites her lip.

"Mm... Yeah."

She shrugs.

"I've gotten used to it. What do you wanna do though?"

Inkling looks around.

"I dunno."

He quickly turns into squid form and jumps at octoling, who catches him.

"Oh wait, I do know."

Octoling giggles and turns into octo form.

They snuggle up with each other.

"So, what do you want to talk about?"

Inkling thinks for a moment.

"You?"

Octoling shivers.

"I don't really-"

"Oh, alright, how about hopper then?"

Octoling blinks.

"Uh... Alright."

She thinks for a moment.

"How about I tell you about the time he imploded a universe?"

"Ooh, sounds interesting."

"Not really. Anyway, he was wrapping up his final thoughts in the fanfic he was in, and then his octoling clone thing, which I don't think you've seen, attacks him! He panics, and opens a portal to random fanfic and pushes his clone inside.

Inkling is looking at her intensely.

"He's confused, obviously, so he calls me up, and he tells me what's going on. I look through all the stuff we had written down-which wasn't a lot back then-and I can't find why that happened."

Inkling nods, and octoling chuckles.

"So I'm annoyed at this point, so I decide to go to him to try and help. And then I hear him talking to someone. So I ask him who's he's talking to, and he says himself. I assumed he meant his inkling clone, but that wasn't the case. I jumped to him, and I was looking at two Hoppers and both of his clones."

Inkling blinks.

"What?"

"Yeah, I know. We were back in her fractured spirit, a fanfic we visited very early on."

Inkling nods.

"We were all bickering, and we didn't notice the Callie and Marie from that universe staring at us. Callie in that universe... Well, let's just say she freaked out when she saw me and the octoling clone."

"Why...?"

"She had PTSD in that universe. I don't blame her."

Octoling sighs.

"So, essentially, we all tried to calm her down before she flipped her lid, when everything except all of us froze. One of the hoppers freaked the fuck out, and tried to move us through a portal, when everyone was thrown through it."

She points to a small black spot in the void.

"That is the result. As well as Callie and Marie now permanently stuck here with us. The other hopper disappeared, presumably back to his own time, and the clones stopped being alive. Hopper controls them himself now."

Inkling nods, and looks at the black spot.

"What is that?"

"It's the hole that the universe left. A small little dot."

Inkling looks at octoling.

"How do you deal with this stuff all the time?"

Octoling smiles.

"This? Is nothing. My own universe was ten times worse than anything I've ever had to deal with here."

Inkling frowns.

"You must've had a terrible life before you came here, huh?"

Octoling sighs.

"Yeah... I owe a lot to hopper."

Inkling goes back into humanoid form and stands up.

Octoling does the same, looking at inkling in confusion.

He looks at her, or more accurately looks through her.

He hugs her.

She doesn't know how to react at first, but she slowly wraps her arms around inkling, tightening her grip as the hug goes on.

She starts crying. She really can't stop herself. She doesn't know why she's crying, but it feels so... Right.

Inkling hums a soft tune to her, one she doesn't recognize, but the gesture is there. He rubs her back, shushing her every so often.

Her crying gets louder, and Marie and Callie come into the area to see what's going on. Inkling looks at them with a pleading look. They nod and slowly walk off.

She's practically crushing him with her grip now, but inkling doesn't seem to mind. She's sobbing loudly, whatever was keeping it in before is gone.

She eventually calms down, and inkling lets her go.

She wipes her eyes and smiles weakly at inkling, who smiles back.

"How...how did you... Do that?"

Inkling sits down again.

"I got the feeling you've never been shown that kind of emotion before. And you were holding so much of your past in, it was killing you."

Octoling sighs.

"Thank you. Thank you... Thank you..."

She keeps repeating it, sitting down at some point.

She repeats it even more, laying down.

She drifts off, fading into sleep.

Inkling stands up.

"I hope that helped her. With all the emotion she gives other people, apparently no one could spare a moment to give her a damn hug."

He looks at her sleeping form.

"Maybe someday she'll tell someone about her past."

He prepares to super jump back to his universe.

"I hope I'm the one she tells."

He jumps away.

-segmentline-

Fizz and Sarah wave at Anthony and Arron, who just got to the meeting point.

Sarah nods.

"Alright, let's go find mom."

Fizz looks at her.

"Victoria. Oh, wait, I never told you."

Anthony rolls his eyes.

"We're gonna find Victoria so she can track aulbrey's number."

Fizz shrugs.

"I know where she lives, we can try there."

Anthony thinks for a moment.

"How about me and fizz check out her house, while you two go find Victoria?"

Fizz nods.

"Sounds good."

Arron and Sarah agree.

They separate.

"So, Anthony, how's Hayden?"

Anthony grins and taps his head.

"Shhh, she's sleeping."

Fizz chuckles.

"Of course."

"She's fine. We couldn't hide your death from her though, so she's gonna be confused."

Fizz groans.

"Fuck. Alright, when she wakes up we'll deal with it."

Anthony nods and looks around.

"So where is this place?"

"Near my old place. I don't think she spent much time there, considering the fucking robot."

Anthony snorts.

"How long do you think she was working on that?"

"Uh... Couple years, at least. Assuming she started making it as a result of what happened in school, it would be around 4 years."

"Woah. What happened to make her hate you that much?"

He shudders.

"Let's, uh... Talk about something else."

Anthony looks at fizz, considering something.

"...alright."

They don't talk about anything else.

Arron and Sarah look over octo valley.

"Come on, it's not far."

She slides down the hill, with Arron following.

"So, Sarah. Have you... Thought about it?"

Sarah sighs.

"I haven't brought it up with fizz yet. I'm still convinced that I would be the worst mother ever."

Arron nods.

"We might keep her. She's nice to have around. But her parents are asking about her, and I don't know how long we can lie about it."

Sarah shrugs.

"You could adopt her under grounds that the parents neglected her. Athough I'm sure they would hate you after that."

Arron scratches his head.

"I guess. She's so happy around us too..."

"So keep her. If she makes you happy, and you make her happy, then it's a perfect setup."

Arron nods.

"Yeah. I'll look into it."

Sarah points down a road.

"Right down there."

They walk up to the door and knock on it.

Victoria opens the door, and steps back in suprise.

"Sarah?! And Arron!"

"Hey Mom, we need a favor from you."

She rolls her eyes.

"Figures. Come on."

She lets them in, and they sit down.

"Come to use my phone tracking skills then?"

"Yeah. We need you to track someone named aulbrey."

She taps the armrest.

"Hmm. Unless you have a number, I can't help you."

Sarah pulls out her phone and texts fizz, who respond quickly with the number.

"Here you go."

Victoria looks at the number.

"Good. Give me a moment."

She takes Sarah's phone and messes with a few things.

The phone buzzes.

"Oh, you got another text."

She looks at it.

"Uh, I don't think I need to track the number anymore."

Sarah frowns and grabs the phone back.

"We found aulbrey, athough she's not exactly... Alive."

Sarah blinks.

"What do you mean...?"

"She killed herself. Noose."

Sarah stares at the text.

"Wow. Uh... I guess we're going home then."

Victoria nods.

"You can come visit sometime."

Sarah nods and hugs Victoria, and leads Arron out.

-segmentline-

Fizz and Anthony reach the home.

"Push it."

Anthony looks at fizz, confused.

"Go on."

Anthony pushes on the door, and one of it's hinges breaks off and the door falls down.

Anthony blinks, and starts laughing.

"How did you-"

"Because I did that. Now come on."

He steps past Anthony, over the door, and looks around.

"Looks abandoned."

Anthony comes in.

"It's dusty as shit in here, did she ever upkeep this place?"

Fizz shrugs and looks in the kitchen.

"Maybe she's in her bedroom?"

Anthony nods and walks down the hall.

"Which ones the bedroom?"

"No idea. Just open some doors."

Anthony opens a door, and it's the bathroom.

"Nope."

He goes to the next door over and opens it.

"Spare bedroom."

Fizz comes into the hallway.

"It must be that one."

They both nod and push on the door, opening it slowly.

They both gasp at the room.

Aulbrey's body is handing from a ceiling lamp, which looks ready to fall down at any moment.

Anthony goes over to the body.

"Holy shit. I didn't think..."

He looks at fizz, who shakes his head.

"Fuck, dude. This is messed up."

Fizz nods.

"Hey, uh, real me? Did she go to the death zone...?"

(No, I think she's stuck in limbo. Killing yourself will do that.)

Fizz puts his head in his hands and sighs.

"Fuck. FUCK."

Anthony sighs.

"Let Sarah and Arron know."

Fizz nods and pulls out his phone.

He sends the message, and answers the following one.

"There."

"Do you think she did this because of Zack...?"

"That's the only reason I can think of."

Anthony walks out of the room.

"Let's just go."

Fizz nods and leaves the room as well.

They arrive back in the square some time later.

"That... How about we just pretend that never happened."

Fizz nods.

"I'm all for that."

Sarah and Arron walk up to them.

"So-"

Fizz shakes his head.

"Just... Let's never talk about this."

They both nod and sit down.

"So, I guess that's it."

Everyone looks at fizz.

"What do you mean?"

"That's all the problems solved. It's back to normal life for us."

They all look at each other.

"So... What do you all want to do now?"

Sarah smirks.

"Turf war?"

They all grin at her.

"Oh hell yeah."

They get up and run torward the the tower, shouting various declarations of Superiority.


	20. The argument

Hopper returns to the void.

He sighs, and sits down at the desk.

"I'm gonna be in the prequel, aren't I?"

(What?)

"You're gonna put me in the prequel."

(Yeah, but your past, not you actually being in it.)

"Oh. That's fine."

What's this about a prequel?

(I'm writing a prequel.)

Ooh! I'm gonna love narrating that-

(You won't.)

What? Who then?

(Me. I've got a specific direction I need it to be spoken.)

Wait, what happens to me then?

(This.)

(Wha- wait, hold on what?)

There we are. Just so everyone is clear on this, it's me, the writer. Only now I get to narrate too.

(So I have to just sit here and watch everything happen?!)

"You two and your squabbling. Shouldn't you be moving on with all of this?"

Of course. But first, since I won't call it by name in the prequel, why don't you tell everyone where octoling comes from?

Hopper groans.

"A fanfic called the creation of diplomacy. Hell of a place, interesting people. But being an octoling in that place is not a good thing. At all."

Good. I'll go deeper into that at some point.

(No but seriously, do I actually just have to watch?)

Yes.

(Ugh.)

"Keep my history accurate please? I don't need it rewritten. It was already rewritten once and I still remember both versions."

Oh, whoops. I meant to fix that.

"Don't bother."

Well all well. I'll worry about that some other time. I am still writing after all.

"I thought you said you had been slowed?"

Because I have. I've made very little progress over these past few months.

(Wait, you started writing it already? Then how is this taking place?)

Because I'm inserting this bit in so some bits make sense.

"Are you gonna post it even though it's unfinished?"

Maybe? I had this full story sitting around for 5 months before I got around to rewrites. So maybe it'll just have to be finished first.

(Just post it, it's not like the people aren't used to waiting for updates.)

"Oof, that's too true for words. I have some fanfics I had to leave because they weren't finished yet myself."

That's why I try to hold it until it's finished.

(But it's pointless, you don't need to do that.)

Why am I even arguing with you two about this?

(Because you've got nothing better to do then write three people arguing.)

I feel like I should be mad at that, but...

"Point is, post it, don't post it, the chapters you've written so far are probably the best."

Of... Of the prequel?

"Yeah. I particularly like the Arron segments."

Of course you do.

(You're stalling.)

Not the point, beside, when don't I?

(Let's just hurry up.)

Gotcha. Hopefully I'll see you all there.

"I'm sure you will."

(Not that it matters.)


End file.
